School of Psychology, University of Tasmania, Australia.
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2019 Nov;109:104416. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.104416. Epub 2019 Aug 23.
Women are at least twice as susceptible to developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared to men. Although most research seeking to explain this discrepancy has focussed on the role of oestradiol during fear extinction learning, the role of progesterone has been overlooked, despite relatively consistent findings being reported concerning the role of progesterone during consolidation of emotional and intrusive memories. In this review article, we outline literature supporting the role of progesterone on memory formation, with particular emphasis on potential memory-enhancing properties of progesterone when subjects are placed under stress. It is possible that progesterone directly and indirectly exerts memory-enhancing effects at the time of trauma, which is an effect that may not be necessarily captured during non-stressful paradigms. We propose a model whereby progesterone's steroidogenic relationship to cortisol and brain-derived neurotrophic factor in combination with elevated oestradiol may enhance emotional memory consolidation during trauma and therefore present a specific vulnerability to PTSD formation in women, particularly during the mid-luteal phase of the menstrual cycle.
女性比男性更容易患上创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）。尽管大多数试图解释这种差异的研究都集中在恐惧消除学习过程中雌二醇的作用上，但孕激素的作用却被忽视了，尽管有相对一致的研究结果表明孕激素在情绪和侵入性记忆的巩固过程中起着作用。在这篇综述文章中，我们概述了支持孕激素在记忆形成中的作用的文献，特别强调了在受试者处于压力下时，孕激素增强记忆的潜在特性。在创伤发生时，孕激素可能直接或间接地产生增强记忆的效果，而这种效果在非压力范式下可能不一定能捕捉到。我们提出了一个模型，即孕激素与皮质醇和脑源性神经营养因子的甾体生成关系，再加上雌二醇的升高，可能会增强创伤期间的情绪记忆巩固，从而使女性，特别是在月经周期的黄体中期，特别容易患上 PTSD。
