Androsterone and reduced anxiety
Kaminski
RM, Marini H, Won-Joo K, and Rogawski MA (2005) Anticonvulsant activity of androsterone and etiocholanolone.
Epilepsia 46:819–827.
"Androstanediol is a positive modulator of
GABAA receptors (Frye et al., 1996) with
potent anxiolytic
and anticonvulsant activity (Frye and Reed, 1998; Reddy,
2004a,b); recently, we confirmed
that androsterone has similar
systemic activities (Kaminski et al., 2005)."
An anxiolytic is any drug or
therapy used in the treatment of anxiety disorders. I am following up on this recent report to determine whether
GABA interaction might be the means by which androsterone (as used in SoE for men) might indicate reduced anxiety in
the wearer as well as reduce anxiety in people (especially women) who are exposed to it.
It's somewhat
satisfying to see the Forum members indicate this effect, but more satisfying to find scientific support for the
effect.
JVK
Androsterone: proposed mechanism of action
Androstenol exposure elicits a luteinizing hormone (LH) response in women. Including androstenol and androsterone
in the SoE/men formula allows for the likelihood of LH conditioning to androsterone, and downstream effects on
estrogen and testosterone levels in women. The following exerpts support this explanation, and helps to explain why
women (and men) develop odor preferences that correlate in some cases with sexual
preferences.
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Graham and Desjardins (1980) reported a conditioned increase in
serum testosterone and luteinizing hormone in male rats following access to a wintergreen odor previously paired
with copulation to ejaculation. Males in an unpaired control group did not show any increase in hormone levels
following exposure to the odor. However, males in both groups exposed to estrous vaginal secretions showed identical
increases in these hormones, which suggests that unconditioned hormone release is mimicked reliably following
pairing of odor with sexual reward.
In summary, female rats can learn to associate a neutral odor
with
sexual reward. An odor paired with the ability of females to
pace copulation becomes a sexual incentive, such
that males bearing the odor are preferred when females are given a choice between scented and unscented males. Thus,
just like male rats,
female rats can learn to modify their sexual behavior and partner
preferences on the
basis of experience with sexual reward. This
confirms that early sexual experiences have particularly
powerful
influences on subsequent sexual preferences and that the development of sexual preferences is influenced
by interactions between conditioned stimulus– unconditioned stimulus pairings and motivational
variables.
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Reference:Coria-Avila GA, Ouimet AJ, Pacheco P, Manzo J,
Pfaus JG. Olfactory conditioned partner preference in the female rat.
Behav Neurosci. 2005 Jun;119(3):716-25.