Sydney, Feb 25: A research team has achieved dramatic results after administering patients with severe schizophrenia, an illness characterised by distortions of reality and social withdrawal, with low doses of oestrogen. A team led by Jayashri Kulkarni, director of the Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, gave 33 young men small doses of estradiol for two weeks.


Within five days the patients' scores measuring psychotic symptoms fell from around 60 or 70 - classified as severe psychosis - to 20 or 30, according to a report in The Age. "It's a quick effect, but also a dramatic effect," Professor Kulkarni said.

"The psychotic symptoms, particularly hallucinations and delusions, are improving. It does open up a new avenue... for this serious mental illness."


Professor Kulkarni said oestrogen helped regulate the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, which were overactive in people with schizophrenia.

Oestrogen could not be used for long periods because it would feminise the men. However, drugs called selective oestrogen receptor modulators, which affect the brain but not the rest of the body, could be used. Brain oestrogens might also be used to repair brain tissue, reducing memory difficulties in older people. Bureau Report