Randomised trial, 2023
Does chronic stress make progesterone withdrawal anxiety worse in a rat model of PMDD?
In stress-prone rats, yes. Chronic stress made anxiety from progesterone withdrawal more severe and changed how the brain's stress system responded. However, this is an animal study, so we cannot be certain the same happens in humans.
What they did
Animal study using female rats prone to anxiety. Rats were exposed to chronic unpredictable stress for 30 days or kept in normal conditions. All rats then received progesterone for 5 days, stopped it, and were tested for anxiety behavior. Researchers then examined brain tissue and stress hormones in blood.
What they found
Progesterone withdrawal caused greater anxiety-like behavior in rats exposed to chronic stress. Chronic stress altered the brain's stress response genes and blunted the normal rise in stress hormones when multiple stressors occurred together.
What it means for you
In this rat model, chronic life stress may make PMDD symptoms worse by changing how the brain's stress system works. This could help explain why women reporting higher daily stress sometimes report worse PMDD. The major limitation is that this is a rat study, not humans, so we need human research to know if this applies.
30 days
Duration of chronic stress
2 mg/kg
Progesterone dose
5 days
Days of progesterone treatment
About the study
- Original title
- Effect of chronic unpredictable stress in female Wistar-Kyoto rats subjected to progesterone withdrawal: Relevance for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder neurobiology
- Authors
- Islas-Preciado D, López-Rubalcava C, Estrada-Camarena E et al.
- Journal
- Psychoneuroendocrinology
- Year
- 2023
- Study design
- Randomised trial
- What was tested
- Chronic unpredictable stress for 30 days, followed by progesterone withdrawal
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106331
Topics
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