About this Research Topic
The Neuroscience portfolio at Frontiers is launching Research Topics to promote international scientific awareness of mental health disorders. Over the past few decades, major progress has been made toward addressing inequalities for people with mental health Disorders, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic with disproportionate increases in loneliness, disruptions to routines, and services and support systems.
This Research Topic article collection will focus on neuroscience research that can inform solutions for creating a culture of awareness, understanding, and solidarity, with this Topic focusing on the progress and challenges still faced in understanding the Neuroendocrinology of Depressive disorders.
The Research Topic solicits brief, forward-looking contributions from researchers around the globe that describe the state of the art, outline recent developments and major accomplishments that have been achieved, and what needs to occur to move the field forward. Authors are encouraged to identify the greatest challenges in their sub-disciplines and to formulate how to begin to address those challenges.
This special edition Research Topic aims to shed light on the progress made in the past decade in the field of Neuroendocrinology and Depression and on the challenges ahead while providing a thorough overview of the state of the art in Neuroendocrinology. This article collection is intended to inspire, inform and provide direction and guidance to researchers in the field.
• Investigating new research into the endocrine system and depressive disorders and the mechanisms behind these pathways
• New insights into Endocrine abnormalities and how they can contribute to significant components of depressive disorders and their manifestations.
• Alterations in pathologic various endocrine factors contributing to depression.
• How direct intervention with endocrine mediators, is a promising avenue for the development of new treatments for depression.
• Examples can include but are not limited to, the role of CRH and AVP in the pathophysiology of depressive disorders
• Examining endocrine abnormality in depressed subjects is hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
• New insights into the role of CRH and AVP receptors in developing effective antidepressant drugs
• New research into how depression affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-GH (HPGH) axes
• How alterations in reproductive systems may also affect the pathology of depression
• Investigating the roles of leptin and neurosteroids such as DHEA, in mood disorders such as depression
• Reviewing the physiology of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA), hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT), and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes
• Assessing the effectiveness of selected hormone-based interventions for the treatment of depression
• This can include but is not limited to HPA axis–based interventions of corticotropin-releasing factor antagonists and the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone.
• The HPT axis–based treatments of thyroid hormones (T3 and T4)
• The HPG axis–based treatments of estrogen replacement therapy, the progesterone derivative allopregnanolone, and testosterone.
Keywords: neuroendocrine, depression, HPA axis, HPGH axes, treatment CRH, AVP
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.