Estrogen when combined with antipsychotic drugs can reduce psychotic symptoms of Schizophrenia in women, said researchers. The study published in the August issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry articulated that when women with schizophrenia were given an estrogen patch accompanied by their regular antipsychotic drugs they showed fewer signs of delusions and hallucinations than those who were given a placebo.

Jayashri Kulkarni of The Alfred and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and colleagues said, "Estrogen treatment is a promising new area for future treatment of schizophrenia and potentially for other severe mental illnesses."

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that shows impaired perception or expression of reality. Auditory hallucinations, disorganized speech and paranoid or bizarre delusions are common manifestations in this disease that affects more men than women. Often diagnosed in late adolescence or early adult life, this disease has no cure though it can be controlled with medication.  According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, schizophrenia is said to affect 1.1 % of the population 18 years or older with 2 million men and women being diagnosed with the disease every year in the United States. Women suffering schizophrenia typically have their first indication approximately five years later than the men do.

Patients of schizophrenia do not exhibit any physical signs of the illness, unlike Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s where the brain shows signs of degradation as warning signs of the onset of the disease.

In an attempt to see if estrogen offered any protection to women Kulkarni and colleagues studied the effects of estradiol, a form of estrogen, in 102 women of childbearing age with schizophrenia.

At the end of the study, the researchers found that women given estradiol showed more improvement in their psychotic symptoms compared with the group that got a placebo. The women also showed a decrease in so-called positive symptoms, like distorted thinking. However there was no change in negative symptoms, such as social or emotional withdrawal, which the researchers said were more difficult to treat.

Researchers felt the reason estrogen worked is as it has a series of neuroprotective and psychoprotective actions such as antioxidant effects and enhancement of cerebral blood flow and cerebral glucose utilization.  As hormonal changes cause deterioration of their conditions, the treatment with estrogen might benefit especially women affected by schizophrenia who undergo childbirth- or menopause-hormonal changes.

Estrogen, a hormone used to ease symptoms of menopause and to treat osteoporosis, has its shares of drawbacks too. Pills containing estrogen have been said to increase the risk of strokes and other ailments in previous studies though estrogen patches may be a safer option.

“There is a lot to be done. But I believe that we have opened up a new and promising area of treatment for a debilitating illness in both women and men,” Kulkarni said.