Evidence Level
Preliminary
Pregnenolone research is still in early stages for most applications. The most notable clinical work comes from psychiatric applications: Marx et al. (2009) showed improvements in cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia patients, and Brown et al. (2014) reported antidepressant effects in bipolar disorder at higher doses. As a neurosteroid, its modulation of NMDA and GABA-A receptors is well-established in preclinical models. However, large-scale RCTs for common supplementation indications (anti-aging, cognition in healthy adults) are lacking.