Original Paper

Estrogen, Cognitive Function and Negative Symptoms in Female Schizophrenia
Young-Hoon Ko, Sook-Haeng Joe, Woong Cho, Jeong-Hyun Park, Jung-Jae Lee, In-Kwa Jung, Leen Kim, Seung-Hyun Kim

^aDepartment of Psychiatry, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, and
^bDepartment of Psychiatry, Bugok National Hospital, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea

Address of Corresponding Author

Neuropsychobiology 2006;53:169-175 (DOI: 10.1159/000093780)

  Key Words

• Schizophrenia
• Estrogen
• Cognitive function
• Negative symptoms
• Prolactin

  Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of serum reproductive hormone levels with cognitive function and negative symptoms in schizophrenic women during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Thirty-five women with chronic schizophrenia who had minimal positive symptoms participated in this study. We evaluated the correlation of serum reproductive hormone levels with the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and cognitive function tests such as the Immediate Visual Recognition Scale, Oral Fluency Test, List Recall Scale with List Acquisition Scale, Trail Making Tests A and B, and Digit Symbol Test. The patients were divided into two subgroups (low estradiol group and normal estradiol group) using the normal serum reference range for estradiol. Significant correlation between SANS subcategories, such as Alogia and Attention Impairment, and estradiol were found. Moreover, significant relationships between the estradiol level and the Oral Fluency Test, List Recall Scale with List Acquisition Scale, Trail Making Test B and Digit Symbol Test were observed. In the low estradiol group, the SANS scores, except for Anhedonia-Asociality and Avolition-Apathy, were significantly higher than those in the normal estradiol group. Patients in the low estradiol group had a significantly lower performance in the cognitive function tests, except Visual Recognition Scale, when compared to patients in the normal estradiol group. These results suggest that for schizophrenic women of reproductive age, lower levels of estrogen are associated with more severe negative symptomatology as well as reduced performance in cognitive function, especially verbal performance and executive functioning.

Copyright © 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Sook-Haeng Joe, MD, PhD
Department of Psychiatry, Korea University College of Medicine
Guro Hospital, #80 Guro 2-dong, Guro-gu
Seoul 152-703 (South Korea)
Tel. +82 2 818 6739, Fax +82 2 852 1937, E-Mail shaeng@korea.ac.kr

  Article Information

Some of the results of this study were presented at the 158th American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Ga., USA, May, 2005.

Received: July 19, 2005
Accepted after revision: January 4, 2006
Published online: June 6, 2006
Number of Print Pages : 7
Number of Figures : 0, Number of Tables : 3, Number of References : 45