 |
Beverly E. Pearson Murphy, OQ, BA, MD, MSc, PhD, FRSc Professor Emerita, Departments of Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Psychiatry Associate Member, Department of Physiology Montreal General Hospital, C6-260 |
Research:
Neurosteroids, endocrine aspects of psychiatry
Virtually all endocrine diseases have psychiatric manifestations and sometimes the psychiatric symptoms overshadow those of the underlying endocrine disease. How do hormones affect the brain? The realization that the brain itself produces steroids is relatively recent, and study of the mechanisms whereby these steroids are produced and controlled will likely shed some light on the psychiatric and endocrine interactions. Although the neurosteroids have been known about for many years and some were shown by Hans Selye to be powerful anesthetics, they were not considered to be important because their levels in human blood were so low. Their levels in brain tissue are higher, but they are still difficult to measure, so that it has been difficult to study them. However, there is now evidence that they may be important in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis. We have developed assays for some of these and are attempting to establish their physiologic significance. I divide my time about 20% seeing patients, and 80% doing research.
Selected Publications:
Murphy BEP, Allison CM. Determination of progesterone and some of its ring A-reduced metabolites in human serum. J Steroid Biochem Molec Biol 74: 134-142, 2000.
Murphy BEP, Abbott FV, Allison C, Watts C, Ghadirian A-M. Elevated levels of some neuroactive progesterone metabolites, particularly isopregnanolone, in women with chronic fatigue syndrome. Psychoneuroendocrinology 29: 245-268, 2004.
Murphy BEP. Glucocorticoids: an overview. Encyclopedia of Stress, second edition, G. Fink, Ed. Academic Press, Oxford, 2007 June.