ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1647425
Hormonal contraceptive use is associated with reduced central serotonergic activity indexed by the Loudness Dependence of Auditory Evoked Potentials
Provisionally accepted
Henrik Normannseth1,2
Christoffer Hatlestad-Hall2
Trine Waage Rygvold2
Alena Hadzic3
Stein Andersson1,2*- 1Dept. of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 2Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- 3Dept. of Pharmacy, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Objective: Hormonal contraceptives (HCs) is are linked to mood disturbances, but the neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated whether HC use is associated with altered central serotonergic activity, using the loudness dependence of auditory evoked potentials (LDAEP). Methods: Fifty-four healthy women (30 current HC users and 24 non-users) completed EEG recordings to assess LDAEP. Depressive symptoms were quantified using the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Between-group analyses were controlled for age and depressive symptoms, and effects of menstrual cycle phase, HC type, and mood-related side effects were also examined. Results: HC users showed significantly steeper LDAEP slopes than non-users across components (all p ≤ 0.028) consistent with reduced central serotonergic activity. This remained significant controlling for age and depressive symptoms. No significant effects of menstrual cycle phase or HC type, but HC This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article users reporting adverse mood effects had more somatic symptoms, without corresponding LDAEP differences. Conclusion: This study is, to our knowledge, among the first to explicitly test an a priori hypothesis that HC use is associated with reduced serotonergic activity indexed by LDAEP in healthy women, and shows that HC use is linked to attenuated central serotonergic activity independent of mood symptoms. These findings underscore the role of sex hormones in shaping serotonergic function and may explain individual variability in mood and antidepressant response.This is the first study to link HC use with reduced serotonergic activity indexed by LDAEP in healthy women and show that HC use is associated with attenuated central serotonergic activity, independent of mood symptoms. These findings underscore the role of sex hormones in shaping serotonergic function and may explain individual variability in mood and antidepressant response.
Keywords: hormonal contraceptives, sex hormones, Loudness dependence of auditory evoked potential (LDAEP), Central serotonergic activity, depressive symptoms
Received: 15 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Normannseth, Hatlestad-Hall, Rygvold, Hadzic and Andersson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Stein Andersson, stein.andersson@psykologi.uio.no
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