---
title: Does a stress-reducing hormone work differently at puberty? | Niyora
description: Yes. In female mice, pregnanolone (a hormone that normally reduces anxiety) actually increases anxiety at puberty because the brain develops new receptors tha
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/puberty-steroids-and-gaba-a-receptor-plasticity-2009/
---

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- Does a stress-reducing hormone work differently at puberty?

Lab study, 2009

# Does a stress-reducing hormone work differently at puberty?

Yes. In female mice, pregnanolone (a hormone that normally reduces anxiety) actually increases anxiety at puberty because the brain develops new receptors that respond to it differently.

 Early or limited evidence

Female mice at different developmental stages (before and after puberty)

## What they did

Lab study examining how pregnanolone, a stress hormone, affects the brain in female mice before and after puberty. Researchers used cell preparations and brain recordings to measure how the hormone changes nerve cell activity and function.

## What they found

Before puberty, pregnanolone reduced nerve cell activity and reduced anxiety. At puberty, these effects reversed. The same hormone now increased nerve cell activity in the hippocampus and increased anxiety behavior. This happened because a specific type of brain receptor increased in expression at puberty.

## What it means for you

How hormones affect the brain changes significantly at puberty. This could help explain why many adolescents experience mood swings and become more sensitive to stress. However, this is a study in mice using lab methods, so it is not clear whether the same mechanism happens in human brains.

2

receptor types examined

alpha4beta2delta

receptor type that appears at puberty

CA1 hippocampus

brain region where anxiety increased

## About the study

Original title Puberty, steroids and GABA(A) receptor plasticity Authors Smith SS, Aoki C, Shen H Journal Psychoneuroendocrinology Year 2009 Study design Lab study Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.05.011](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.05.011)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Anxiety and tension](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-anxiety/)[Stress](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-stress/)[Neurosteroids (allopregnanolone)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-neurosteroids/)[Pregnancy and postpartum](https://niyora.com/research/topics/comorbidity-postpartum/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/)

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