Enzyme Identified as Sex-Specific Cause of Depression Triggered by Stress Hormones Dysfunction

Northwestern Medicine investigators have discovered novel sex-specific mechanisms that control how stress hormones impact dopamine transmission and motivation, findings that can inform new therapeutic strategies for treating major depressive disorder. Men are more likely to have a dysregulated HPA axis that is associated with depressive symptoms, while women have higher levels of binding proteins for stress hormones that may prevent dysregulation of the HPA axis. The findings shed new light on how stress hormones impact dopamine transmission and how this impacts depression on a sex-specific basis.