Pregnenolone
Hormone Restoration
In plain English
Pregnenolone is a hormone the body uses as a building block to make other hormones. It is sometimes taken as a supplement with claims about memory, mood, and stress, but strong human evidence for those uses is limited. It is usually taken as a capsule. People should be aware that most marketed benefits are not well proven.
The science
Pregnenolone is the parent neurosteroid synthesized from cholesterol and is the upstream precursor to progesterone, DHEA, and downstream sex steroids and corticosteroids; it and its metabolites modulate GABA-A and NMDA receptors and may influence microtubule/cognitive pathways. Human evidence for symptomatic benefit is limited and mostly confined to small psychiatric trials: randomized studies suggest possible improvement in depressive symptoms in bipolar depression and in negative symptoms in schizophrenia, while effects on cognition and in healthy adults are inconsistent. There are no adequate trials supporting routine use for 'anti-aging,' hormone optimization, or energy in otherwise healthy adults. Pregnenolone is sold as a dietary supplement in the U.S. and is not FDA-approved as a drug; long-term safety data are sparse and, as a hormone precursor, downstream androgen/estrogen effects are plausible but poorly characterized.
References
- Brown et al., Neuropsychopharmacology 2014 (pregnenolone for bipolar depression RCT)
- Marx et al., Neuropsychopharmacology 2009 (pregnenolone in schizophrenia RCT)
- Osuji et al., Psychiatry Res 2010 (cognition/mood, dual-diagnosis RCT)