Progesterone May Prevent Brain Damage Following Head Injury

Progesterone, a female steroid hormone and a common component of the oral contraceptive pill, could improve the neurologic outcome for patients with severe head injuries, according to a new study.

Researchers from Hangzhou Normal University (China) and Zhejiang University in (Hangzhou, China) conducted a randomized, double-blinded trial of 159 patients with acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) admitted to a single hospital. Approximately half the patients received progesterone and the other half placebo for five days after the injury. Patient outcomes were classified either as favorable (good recovery or moderate disability) or unfavorable (severe disability, vegetative state or death). Neurological outcomes were measured using the Glasgow Outcome Scale, a system for evaluating the functional outcome of patients.

The results of the study showed that at both three and six months after treatment, significantly more patients given progesterone had favorable outcomes compared to patients given placebo. Progesterone was also linked to increased survival at six months. No complications or adverse events were seen in the patients given progesterone. The study was published on April 30, 2008, in the open access journal Critical Care, a publication of Biomed Central.

"We found encouraging evidence that progesterone may significantly improve 6-month neurologic outcome of the patients who were enrolled with acute severe TBI,” said lead author, Giomin Xiao, M.D. "Our results provide information important for further multicenter clinical trials on progesterone as a promising neuroprotective drug.”

Several animal models have shown that females have reduced susceptibility to TBI and this protective effect was hypothesized to have been caused by the increased circulating levels of estrogen and progesterone in females. The mechanism of progesterone protective effects may be the reduction of inflammation that follows brain trauma.


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Hangzhou Normal University
Zhejiang University
Biomed Central