@article{2deca17d9359448dbabe8dc6e3a080c5,
title = "Effects of sex, menstrual cycle phase, and endogenous hormones on cognition in schizophrenia",
abstract = "BACKGROUND: In women with schizophrenia, cognition has been shown to be enhanced following administration of hormone therapy or oxytocin. We examined how natural hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle influence cognition in women with schizophrenia. We hypothesized that female patients would perform worse on {"}female-dominant{"} tasks (verbal memory/fluency) and better on {"}male-dominant{"} tasks (visuospatial) during the early follicular phase (low estradiol and progesterone) compared to midluteal phase (high estradiol and progesterone) in relation to estradiol but not progesterone. METHODS: Fifty-four women (23 with schizophrenia) completed cognitive assessments and provided blood for sex steroid assays and oxytocin at early follicular (days 2-4) and midluteal (days 20-22) phases. Men were included to verify the expected pattern of sex differences on cognitive tests. RESULTS: Expected sex differences were observed on {"}female-dominant{"} and {"}male-dominant{"} tasks (p < 0.001), but the magnitude of those differences did not differ between patients and controls (p=0.44). Cognitive performance did not change across the menstrual cycle on {"}female-dominant{"} or {"}male-dominant{"} tasks in either group. Estradiol and progesterone levels were unrelated to cognitive performance. Oxytocin levels did not change across the menstrual cycle but were positively related to performance on {"}female-dominant{"} tasks in female patients only (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Sex differences in cognitive function are preserved in schizophrenia. Oxytocin levels do not change across the cycle, but relate to enhanced performance on female dominant tests in women. Physiological levels of oxytocin may thus have a more powerful benefit in some cognitive domains than estrogens in schizophrenia.",
keywords = "Cognition, Estrogen, Menstrual cycle, Oxytocin, Schizophrenia, Sex differences",
author = "Rubin, {Leah H.} and Carter, {C. Sue} and Drogos, {Lauren L.} and Hossein Pournajafi-Nazarloo and Sweeney, {John A.} and Maki, {Pauline M.}",
note = "Funding Information: Dr. Sweeney is a consultant to Pfizer, BMS, Takeda, and Lilly and had a research grant from Janssen. Dr. Maki received honoraria from the American Nutraceutical Association and research support from the Soy Health Research Program. Dr. Rubin declares that, except for income received from their primary employer, no financial support or compensation has been received from any individual or corporate entity over the past 3 years for research or professional service, and there are no personal financial holdings that could be perceived as constituting a potential conflict of interest. There are no conflicts of interest for the other authors. Funding Information: This publication was made possible by Grant Number F31MH082480 from the National Institute of Mental Health , Grant Number K12HD055892 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health. Other support for this work was by a Psi Chi Graduate Research Grant, by the Alice J. Dan Dissertation Award from the UIC Center for Research on Women and Gender (CRWG), and by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), Award Number UL1RR029879 from the National Center for Research Resources , and by the Core Lab of the GCRC/CNRU at the University of Alabama, which is supported by NIH grants M01-RR-00032 , and P30-DK56336 . We would like to thank Erin Eatough, Antonia Savarese, Mary Winters, Pamela Perschler, Stephanie Klenotich, Jessica Jandak, and Melissa Arcabos for their assistance with this study. Special thanks goes to Ellen Herbener, Jim Pellegrino, Julie Dumas, Cherise Rosen, Sheila Dowd, Sandra Wilkniss and the Thresholds Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center.",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.1016/j.schres.2015.04.039",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "166",
pages = "269--275",
journal = "Schizophrenia Research",
issn = "0920-9964",
publisher = "Elsevier",
number = "1-3",
}