Neuroactive Steroids in First-Episode Psychosis: A Role for Progesterone?

Neuroactive steroids may play a role in the pathophysiology of psychotic disorders, but few studies examined this issue. We compared serumlevels of cortisol, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, and progesterone between a representative sample of firstepisode psychosis (FEP) patients and age- and gender-matched healthy subjects. Furthermore, we analyzed the associations between neuroactive steroids levels and the severity of psychotic symptom dimensions.Male patients had lower levels of progesterone than controls