[Molecular basis for the use of steroids in psychiatry (author's transl)]

In animals, estrogens and progestins modulate food intake, running wheel activity and sexual behavior, androgens stimulate sexual behavior and aggression, and corticoids influence cerebral electrolyte regulation, sleep and memory. In this and other studies, we have established that soluble receptors binding steroid hormones are present, often in high concentration, in various central structures such as hypothalamus, cortex, hippocampus and amygdala and have shown that some of the effects of steroids on behavior can be related to their interaction with these receptors and the resultant biochemical events. Thus, in the rat, the induction of sexual behavior by estrogens and progesterone can be related to the increase in progestin receptor induced in the hypothalamus by estrogens. The action of glucocorticoids has been implicated in memory processes involving protein synthesis and this study shows that glucocorticoids stimulate protein synthesis in the cortex of hypophysectomized rats, a structure rich in glucocorticoid receptors. Since the hormonal specificity of receptor binding is similar in peripheral and central target tissues, it is suggested that competition experiments on a peripheral target tissue can be used as a simple test to select compounds (agonists or antagonists) able to replace endogenous hormones at the receptor site in the treatment of psychiatric disorders due to endocrine dysfunction (hormone deficit or excess).