ADVERTISEMENT
Menopausal Hormone Therapy Benefits Midlife Women With Schizophrenia
Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) is associated with a 16% lower risk of psychosis relapse in midlife women with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SSD), according to real-world study results published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
“The findings underscore the potential value of MHT in preventing psychosis relapse among women with SSD of menopausal age,” wrote corresponding author Bodyl A. Brand, MSc, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands, and study coauthors.
Around the time of menopause, the effectiveness of antipsychotics in preventing relapse tends to decline in women with SSD. To investigate whether MHT could help prevent relapse, researchers used a within-subject study design in a Finnish nationwide cohort of 3488 women with SSD, aged 40 through 62 years, who used MHT.
The hazard ratio for psychosis relapse, after adjustment for age and psychotropic use, was 0.84 for women who used MHT compared with women who did not, according to the study.
>>RELATED: FDA Approves First Schizophrenia Treatment in Over 3 Decades
When researchers looked at effectiveness by age, the risk of psychosis relapse was decreased in women who used MHT between ages 40 and 49 (0.86 adjusted hazard ratio) and between ages 50 and 55 years (0.74 adjusted hazard ratio), the study found. In women who used MHT between ages 56 and 62, however, the relapse risk was not reduced (1.11 adjusted hazard ratio).
The effectiveness in reducing relapse was similar for estrogen alone or estrogen combined with fixed or sequential progestogens (adjusted hazard ratios between 0.79 and 0.86), transdermal and oral formulations (between 0.75 and 0.87), and for most specific formulations (between 0.75 and 0.85) with the exception of tibolone (1.04 adjusted hazard ratio) and dydrogesterone-containing formulations (1.05 adjusted hazard ratio), researchers reported.
The study found similar results for the secondary outcome of psychiatric hospitalizations.
“These findings translate clinical evidence on the neuroprotective effects of estrogens to real-world settings, encompassing a group of women for whom current antipsychotic treatment options may be insufficient,” researchers wrote.
Reference
