Week of March 20, 2001

People often talk about being controlled by their hormones, but how do these chemicals really affect behavior? This week, we look at Hormones and the Mind. Guests include Dr. James McBride Dabbs, a Professor of Psychology who discusses testosterone and personality; Drs. Peter Schmidt and Catherine Roca from the National Institute of Mental Health, who explain the latest research on PMS; and Dr. Jeffrey Flier, an endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School, who explores the link between hormones and weight.

Host Dr. Fred Goodwin begins with an essay about how much knowledge we’ve gained about hormones since he was in medical school. In former days, hormones were thought to have relatively discreet functions - for example, sex hormones were known to affect reproductive organs. But now, we know hormones also affect the brain and behavior in complex ways. Not only that, but the environment can affect our hormone levels, which, in turn, impact our behavior.

Next, adventure journalist Stefani Jackenthal gives a first-hand account of the adrenalin rush she felt when scaling a live volcano in Ecuador. She says she went from feeling like an intruder on the rock face, suffering from utter exhaustion, to feeling absolutely focused, as if she were one with the mountain. When the adrenalin rush hit, time seemed to slow down, and nothing in the world mattered except the steps she was taking. That, she says, is the fix that keeps her coming back for more.

Switching gears to talk about sex hormones, Dr Goodwin interviews Dr. James McBride Dabbs, a Professor of Psychology and the head of the Social/Cognitive Psychology Program at Georgia State University. Along with his wife Mary Godwin Dabbs, Dr. Dabbs wrote Heroes, Rogues and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior.

Testosterone is widespread in animals and plants, but in people it happens to be linked to sex. Dr. Dabbs has looked at testosterone levels in more than eight thousand individuals and found some interesting correlations between testosterone and behavior. According to his research, high testosterone men and women are bolder, more focused, and more rambunctious. Although most people fall into a middle range, very high testosterone levels can start to be detrimental.

The very high testosterone male is likely to be lean and balding, oriented toward action rather than contemplation, combative and a bit wild; he also has a high libido, doesn’t smile much, tends not to live as long and may be unemployed. Dr. Dabbs also found a correlation between high testosterone and divorce. Married men have the lowest levels of testosterone, single men and divorced men who are remarried fall in the middle, and divorced men have the highest levels.

Dr. Dabbs found similar correlations in women. For example, in both sexes, trial lawyers have higher testosterone levels than other kinds of lawyers. High testosterone women also engage in more extra-marital sex, smile less than low testosterone women, and are likely to have more presence and a stronger handshake. While testosterone levels in men and women don’t overlap, the effects of testosterone on each sex are equally great. That is, there is just as much difference between a high and a low testosterone woman as there is between a high and a low testosterone man.

Dr. Dabbs continues by saying that both socialization and hormones shape the way we are - it’s not just one or the other. With proper socialization, high testosterone can work to a person’s benefit, as tends to be the case with trial lawyers and actors.

Evolutionarily, moderately high testosterone would have been an advantage for males. In hunter-gatherer days, success was measured by combat, and one needs boldness and focus to win fights. In modern society, however, there are different standards of success, and high testosterone men don’t have the same advantages. Often, the highest testosterone men are now unemployed.

To contact Dr. James McBride Dabbs, write to: Dr. James McBride Dabbs; Department of Psychology; Georgia State University; Atlanta, GA 30303. Or visit www.gsu.edu.

To purchase Heroes, Rogues and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior, go to: Heroes, Rogues and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior

For a light-hearted look at hormones, we turn to Deb Gauldin, an obstetric nurse, childbirth educator and entertainer who performs what she calls “hormone-affirming music for women.” She sings PMS Blues in a special performance for The Infinite Mind.

To find out more about Deb Gauldin and her music, visit www.debgauldin.com

After a break, we take a more serious look at PMS. Dr. Goodwin is joined by two senior investigators from the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Peter Schmidt and Dr. Catherine Roca. Dr. Roca says that recent research into premenstrual syndrome shows that PMS is not caused by abnormal hormone levels, but rather by an abnormal response to normal hormone levels.

Dr. Schmidt gives the clinical distinction between normal PMS and severe PMS, or PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder). Many women have some symptoms like tension or bloating prior to some menstrual cycles. But women suffering from severe PMS have symptoms that are consistently present every month and cause some dysfunction or disruption in work, life, or relationships. Often, severe PMS goes beyond physical symptoms and causes a change in experiential state - that is, a woman might feel a change in her perceptions, perhaps no longer finding joy in things that are ordinarily pleasant.

Dr. Roca says that women should see a professional for diagnosis, since it’s not uncommon to mistake depression for PMS.

The doctors then discuss a new treatment for severe PMS, Serafem, a drug that is the chemical equivalent of Prozac (though in a pink and lavender capsule). Serafem is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, that is, it increases the amount of seratonin available in the brain. Sixty to seventy percent of women treated with it seem to experience relief of symptoms, but no one is sure exactly how it works.

Drs. Schmidt and Roca are also doing research into other possible new treatments. One promising avenue involves the drug Lupron, which suppresses ovulation. Unfortunately, it can have serious negative side effects, which they are looking into ways to control.

For information about participating in Drs. Schmidt and Roca's studies contact: Linda Simpson-St.Clair; 301-496-9576; or e-mail linda.simpson@nih.gov ; or visit their website at http://intramural.nimh.nih.gov/research/beb/index2.htm

For general information about NIMH research, write to: NIMH Public Inquiries; 6001 Executive Blvd., Rm. 8184, MSC 9663; Bethesda MD, 20892-9663; call 301-443-4513; or visit www.nimh.nih.gov .

Next, producer Marit Haahr interviews Dr. Jeffrey Flier, an endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, about the link between the hormone leptin and obesity.

Leptin was originally discovered by its absence -- certain extremely obese mice lack it. We now know that it’s a hormone produced in fat cells, which circulates in the body, and if mice (or people, in rare cases) don’t have it, they become severely obese. When leptin was originally discovered, some people hoped it would prove to be a magic bullet to control obesity.

That’s not the case, except in the few people who can’t produce the hormone at all. For the average obese person, gaining weight does increase leptin levels, but higher leptin levels do not bring weight back down.

Instead, leptin seems to function primarily as a signal to the brain that there is insufficient energy. That is, in periods of starvation, leptin levels in the blood fall, and this fall creates a signal in the brain (specifically in the hypothalamus) that causes the body to react. The signal causes hunger, slows down metabolism, and suppresses the reproductive system (both because reproduction uses a lot energy and because offspring would not fare well during periods of starvation).

Dr. Flier says there is an evolutionary explanation for why rising levels of leptin do not bring weight down. There would have been no advantage to staying thin during times of plenty - on the contrary, we would have benefited from putting on a little weight to store up for times of scarcity.

Still, Dr. Flier thinks research into the hormone will ultimately lead to drugs to help control obesity, given that we now understand that the processes influencing appetite and weight regulation work in a well-defined body system, much like our gastro-intestinal system. Knowing this, researchers can now look for discreet targets in the brain on which drugs might act.

To contact Dr. Jeffrey Flier, write to: Dr. Jeffrey Flier; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; 99 Brookline Avenue; Research North, 323; Boston, MA 02215; or visit www.hms.harvard.edu

Finally, commentator John Hockenberry discusses his horror at the fact that our culture seems to have come to tolerate school and workplace violence. Although raging hormones may be one of the causes of this problem, he believes the answer lies elsewhere - in changing the social institutions, themselves.

· Back to the The Infinite Mind Index