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Treatment of bipolar depression continues to vex clinicians and distressed patients alike. Researchers conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, 12-week, clinical trial of the endogenous neurosteroid pregnenolone given adjunctively (titrated to 500 mg/day) in 73 bipolar patients with depression. Research evidence exists that pregnenolone is involved in mood regulation in animals and modulates mood-relevant neural circuits in humans. One author has a patent pending on this use.
Although pregnenolone had a significantly greater remission rate than placebo at study end on a scale for patient-rated depressive symptoms (61% vs. 37%), this was not observed with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD; 47% and 51%), and neither measure sho…