Dados do Trabalho

Título

EFFECTS OF FEMALE SEXUAL HORMONES ON SLEEP – A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF PRECLINICAL DATA

Introdução

Previous clinical and preclinical data have raised the possibility that female sexual hormones may influence sleep physiology, being used as an alternative to hypnotics. Due to the diversity of formulations and other methodological factors have impaired to draw definitive conclusions on this topic, especially in preclinical studies. Up to now, no comprehensive reassessment have been performed.

Objetivo

The current study intended to perform a bibliometric review of studies evaluating the effects of sexual hormones interventions on sleep, focusing on preclinical animals models. It aimed at understand the publication trends on this field, including the most used hormonal interventions and animal species. This is a previous step to a systematic review, which aim at explored the available data and research trends, as well as to evaluate which interventions, outcomes and species are more likely to result in a meta-analysis.

Métodos

An initial bibliographic search was conducted in Pubmed, aiming at retrieving studies evaluating the effects of female sexual hormones on objectively assessed sleep in preclinical animal models. Search strategy encompassed three domains: female sexual hormones (as intervention), sleep evaluate by polysomnography or related recordings (as outcomes) and experimentation animals (as intervention). Studies were screened by two independent reviewers. A bibliometric analysis was made, in order to understand the publication trends on this field.

Resultados

After bibliographic search, 288 records were retrieved. Among these, 38 were considered eligible for this systematic review. Concordance rate between reviewers were of 97.92%. Publication record seems to be in decline on this field, as most studies were published during the 90’s (12 – 31%), while 13 were published from 2000 to date. Most commonly used species were rats (20 studies) followed by mice (2 studies). All other species were used in an only one study (including marmoset, rabbit, sheep, canary, cat and guinea pig). Regarding the interventions, 10 studies evaluated the effects of estradiol, seven were related to progesterone.

Conclusões

Heterogeneity is observed on hormonal interventions and animal species, reducing the likelihood of performing a robust meta-analysis on the field. The reduction on the number of articles might reflect an understanding that hormonal-derived interventions have no clinical value as a possible therapeutic strategy for sleep disorders.

Palavras-chave

Estrogen, progesterone, Sexual hormones