Estrogen Patch for Schizophrenia

Researchers at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia have been studying the effectiveness of an estrogen patch for women with schizophrenia. Estrogen is a group of steroid compounds, otherwise known as the female sex hormone, and the patch was originally created to help women with the symptoms of menopause.

Estrogen is thought to play a part in schizophrenia for women because of certain evidence that has been presented about estrogen’s effect on the same chemical signals in the brain that are affected during schizophrenia. It has also been noted that schizophrenia in women occurs later in life than for men and oftentimes after childbirth or during menopause, when estrogen is at its lowest for women. Also, it is known that women often have a relapse in schizophrenia during the low-estrogen time of their menstrual period.

Since there is strong evidence that estrogen ‘may’ be linked to schizophrenia, the researchers used the estrogen patch, Estradiol, to see if there were noticeable differences for women who used the patch in addition to their regular antipsychotic medications. The study involved 102 women with schizophrenia who were also of childbearing age. The study lasted four weeks and the researchers reported that the patients who used the patch had reduced symptoms, such as hallucinations, disordered thinking and delusions.

In a separate 2-week study involving men instead of women, 52 men tried the hormone with reduced symptoms and success as well.

Unfortunately, estrogen is known to increase risk for various cancers, such as breast cancer, endometrial cancer and uterine cancer. It has also been linked to blood clots, stroke and heart attack in women taking the hormones for longer than five years. Due to these health risks, researchers are exploring the use of SERMs (selective estrogen receptor modulators), which can hopefully mimic the antipsychotic effect of estrogen in the body without harmful side effects.

New, larger and broader studies with SERMs are being planned for women and men to determine whether or not estrogen can be helpful and safe for those with schizophrenia.



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