Their volunteer, non-profit site is quite large, so remember when you’re done, if you’d like more on the research on estrogen use in Psychiatry (such as there is), come on back. Here is my collection of relevant research for a psychiatrist interested in mood and anxiety.
http://psycheducation.org/hormones-and-mood-introduction/basic-information-about-estrogen-in-psychiatry/
During the first few weeks of pregnancy, both estrogen and progesterone levels rise rapidly and can affect mood stability. By the sixth week, a woman’s estrogen level is approximately three times that of the highest point in the menstrual cycle, and many women become extremely irritable.
http://womensinternational.com/connections/moods.html
Both postnatal depression and PMS occur during a hormonal upheaval, specifically when there is a significant drop in progesterone. Both conditions include symptoms of exhaustion, irritability, depression, and mood changes—sometimes with violent outbursts and/or suicidal tendencies.
http://womensinternational.com/connections/moods.html
We Live in Interesting Times. Why progesterone causes mood changes Jan. 26th, 2010 at 8:02 AM. The brain has both estrogen and progesterone receptors. In women who have epilepsy, seizures are known to occur more frequently during times of high estrogen (late follicular phase and ovulation) and they are decreased when progesterone is high. In this sense, progesterone acts a a brain anesthetic to some degree. High doses of progesterone can be very sedating. Women who have depression, have lower brain levels of serotonin, thus the success of medications that block the body’s degradation of serotonin and allow brain levels to remain higher.
http://holyhormones.com/womens-health/hormones/estrogen/effects-of-estrogen-and-progesterone-on-mood/
This is tricky. Move on if you’re not ready to dig into some graphs. The first shows an antidepressant effect from estrogen, but the second shows some increase in anxiety in a few women. Note that zero, no change, is in the middle of these scales.
http://psycheducation.org/hormones-and-mood-introduction/basic-information-about-estrogen-in-psychiatry/
Hormonal Disorder. Symptoms of PMDD include anger, irritability, anxiety, and a depressed mood ― all of which occur in the luteal (latter or second-half) phase of the menstrual cycle, about 1 to 2 weeks before the start of menses.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/812792
Antidepressant effects, but sometimes anxiety. However, even though the effects of estrogen on the brain are clearly very complex, we psychiatrists are still faced with the fact that something about estrogen and progesterone clearly affects mood.
http://psycheducation.org/hormones-and-mood-introduction/basic-information-about-estrogen-in-psychiatry/
For now, if anxiety is a problem and the level is higher than 150 or so (in one of my patients switched over to estradiol at what was thought to be an equivalent dose, it was 400), then you should talk to your doctors about trying a lower dose. 1  Estrogen effects on mood are complex, not simple.
http://psycheducation.org/hormones-and-mood-introduction/basic-information-about-estrogen-in-psychiatry/
While you will often see the implication “too little estrogen leads to depression”, and the related claim “estrogen can be a treatment for depression”, you should keep in mind that this is a dramatic simplification of a complex relationship, most of which we don’t understand.
http://psycheducation.org/hormones-and-mood-introduction/basic-information-about-estrogen-in-psychiatry/
Those with low anxiety scores showed the opposite pattern. Our findings suggest that anxiety proneness and progesterone levels modulate menstrual cycle related amygdala reactivity in women with PMDD, write the investigators. In the newly completed study, Dr. Sundstroem Sundström poromaa and colleagues sought to determine whether the type of emotional stimuli would make a. difference
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/812792
effect of progesterone on mood
The effect of progesterone on mood is sometimes with violent outbursts and suicidal tendencies.