Anxiety and Depression Target Identified for Treatment-Resistant Patients

Studies by researchers in the U.S. suggest that a metabolite of progesterone may represent a new therapeutic target for depression and anxiety in otherwise treatment-resistant groups of patients, including those with anorexia nervosa. Collaborating scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Boston University School of Medicine, found low levels of the neuroactive steroid allopregnanolone (3α-5α-tetrahydroprogesterone, or ‘allo&rsquo