Jun 29, 2022·edited Jun 29, 2022Liked by Thomas Reilly
Really interesting post. Is there any chance that increased prescription of HRT led to a reduced incidence of schizophrenia in post-menopausal age groups? Is the second peak in women seen more often in the earlier studies?
I hadn’t thought of that! I’m not sure the proportion of women who are prescribed HRT, I’ve seen the figure of 10% in some media articles - which would surely be too low to have an effect. My guess is women with risk factors for schizophrenia would also be less likely to seek out HRT than the general population.
But I’m sure there a record-linkage study waiting to be done.
Re the lancet article - relative risks for HRT and breast cancer looks worrying but the absolute risk goes up from 6% to 8% which most individuals could probably accept.
It's is from the USA in the 1990s, so perhaps the peak of HRT anywhere. It's still a bit of a longshot, but perhaps there was enough HRT to have had an effect, especially if it was targeted to those who are most symptomatic?
Really interesting post. Is there any chance that increased prescription of HRT led to a reduced incidence of schizophrenia in post-menopausal age groups? Is the second peak in women seen more often in the earlier studies?
Some nice data on HRT prescriptions here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2819%2931709-X/fulltext
I hadn’t thought of that! I’m not sure the proportion of women who are prescribed HRT, I’ve seen the figure of 10% in some media articles - which would surely be too low to have an effect. My guess is women with risk factors for schizophrenia would also be less likely to seek out HRT than the general population.
But I’m sure there a record-linkage study waiting to be done.
Re the lancet article - relative risks for HRT and breast cancer looks worrying but the absolute risk goes up from 6% to 8% which most individuals could probably accept.
Good data are surprisingly hard to find, but I've done a little more digging...
This paper says: 'The percentage of women aged 50 to 74 years taking hormone therapy increased from 33% to 42% between 1995 and 2001.' https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/197940
It's is from the USA in the 1990s, so perhaps the peak of HRT anywhere. It's still a bit of a longshot, but perhaps there was enough HRT to have had an effect, especially if it was targeted to those who are most symptomatic?