• Roberto Cosimo Melcangi and Giancarlo Panzica.
• Dept. of Endocrinology, Pathophysiology, and Applied Biology-Center of Excellence on Neurodegenerative Diseases, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Balzaretti 9, 20133 Milano, Italy. roberto.melcangi@unimi.it
• Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2009 Dec 1;34 Suppl 1:S1-8.

AbstractAfter five editions, the congress on "Steroids and Nervous System" held in Torino, Italy, represents an important international event for researchers involved in this field aimed to recapitulate mechanisms, physiological and pharmacological effects of neuroactive steroids. The present review introduces manuscripts collected in this supplement issue which are based on new interesting findings such as the influence of sex steroids on cannabinoid-regulated biology, the role of steroids in pain, the importance of co-regulators in steroidal mechanisms and the understanding of new non classical mechanism, the emerging role of vitamin D as a neuroactive steroid and the pathogenetic mechanisms mediated by glucocorticoid receptors. Finally, we have integrated these aspects with an update on some of the several and important observations recently published on this hot topic.

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