Hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women with schizophrenia: Positive effect on negative symptoms?

Background: Some studies of premenopausal women suggest that the severity o f psychopathology associated with schizophrenia may be related to levels of estrogen, Methods: We examined psychopathology in community-dwelling postmenopausal w omen with schizophrenia who had received (n = 24) versus had never received (n = 28) hormone replacement therapy, Results: Users of hormone replacement therapy and nonusers did not differ s ignificantly with respect to age, ethnicity, education, age of onset, durat ion of schizophrenia, global cognitive functioning, or neuroleptic-induced movement disorders. The hormone replacement therapy users received lower av erage daily doses of antipsychotic medication; they had similar levels of p ositive symptoms bur significantly less severe negative symptoms compared w ith hormone replacement therapy nonusers, independent of differences in ant ipsychotic dosage, Conclusions: Our results suggest that the use of hormone replacement therap y in conjunction with antipsychotic medication in postmenopausal women with schizophrenia may help reduce negative, but not positive, symptoms. Biol P sychiatry 2001;49:47-51 (C) 2001 Society of Biological Psychiatry.