The role of estrogen in the treatment of men with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a debilitating and pervasive mental illness with devastating effects on many aspects of psychological, cognitive and social wellbeing. Epidemiological and life-cycle data point to significant differences in the incidence and course of schizophrenia between men and women, suggesting that estrogen plays a 'protective' role . Adjunctive estrogen therapy has been shown to be effective in enhancing the treatment of schizophrenia in women. In men, consideration of estrogen therapy has been impacted by concerns of feminisation, however, clinical trials using estrogen to treat prostate cancer, bone density loss and even aggression in men with dementia or traumatic brain injury, show estrogen to be a safe and effective therapy. Findings do, however, suggest that further exploration of a therapeutic role for adjunctive estradiol treatment in men with schizophrenia is warranted. The development of the new estrogen compounds - Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs) which do not cause feminisation - opens up the possibility of using a different type of estrogen for a longer period of time at higher doses. Estrogen could therefore prove to be an important component in the treatment of psychotic symptoms in men with schizophrenia. This review explains the scientific rationale behind the estrogen hypothesis and how it can be clinically utilised to address concerns unique to the care of men with schizophrenia.