Hyperprolactinemia and psychological disturbance

Psychological symptoms, specially anxiety and depression, have been associated to hyperprolactinemia. To evaluate the presence of these symptoms, 32 patients (5 men and 27 women) with hyperprolactinemia of several etiologies and 15 individuals with normal prolactin levels were submitted to the Composed International Diagnostic Interview, followed by the Hamilton rating scale for depression. The serum prolactin, at the time of evaluation, ranged between 28 and 180 ng/mL. Eleven patients were receiving bromocriptine. The presence of anxiety was detected in 18 patients (56.2%) and 5 controls (32.2%), depression was detected in 10 patients (31.2%) and 2 controls (12.5%), dysthymia in 2 patients and other psychiatric diagnosis in 6 patients (18.7%). The scores of depression ranged between 16 and 31 for the patients, and were 12 and 16 for the controls. The frequency of psychiatric symptoms as a whole, was significantly higher in the hyperprolactinemic patients (chi-square test), but the difference was not significant in isolated analysis of anxiety and depression. The hyperprolactinemia represents a risk of 3.52 for depression, 3.32 for anxiety and 3.84 for other psychiatric symptoms. There was no significant difference in the frequency of psychiatric symptoms among patients with or without pituitary adenomas nor users or not users of bromocriptine. There was no correlation (r=0,07) between prolactin and the frequency of psychiatric symptoms. These results emphasize the importance of a special attention to the concomitance of hyperprolactinemia and psychiatric disturbance, which will allow a specific therapeutic approach.