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Psychosis treatments advanced with $1.4m

Monash's Professor Jayashri Kulkarni has obtained four lucrative grants to further her pioneering work using oestrogen to treat bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia.

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni whose research has attracted funding.

As director of The Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, which coordinates and facilitates psychiatric research between the hospital and the university, Professor Kulkarni has received grants totalling more than AU$1.4 million from the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Washington, pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

She has been awarded a three-year Stanley Foundation grant of US$230,000 for her study 'Anti-oestrogen -- a potential treatment for bipolar affective disorder in women', and a Stanley Foundation grant of US$180,000 over two years for 'Selective oestrogen receptor modulators -- new treatment for women with schizophrenia?'

Professor Kulkarni has also won a five-year US$675,000 grant from the US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly to study 'Bipolar comprehensive outcomes study', plus a three-year AU$234,000 NHMRC Project grant for ‘Anti-oestrogens in women with bipolar disorder'.

Professor Kulkarni's research is designed to explore the anecdotal theory, often voiced by female psychiatric patients, that their hormone levels affect their symptoms.

She has recently concluded a clinical trial in which 90 female schizophrenia patients used transdermal oestrogen patches to supplement their existing medication.

"We are now in the process of analysing the data collected during that trial," Professor Kulkarni said. "The results look very positive."

In another recent study, she looked at the effect of Tamoxifen -- an oestrogen-suppressant drug used to treat breast cancer -- on women with manic symptoms, because the drug was found to worsen their condition.

That pilot study was successful, so Professor Kulkarni is now organising a further study involving 60 women over three years using the new NHMRC funding and one of the Stanley Foundation grants.