Low Plasma Prolactin Levels in Patients with Functional Dyspepsia

Abstract

Background: The purpose was to compare the levels and patterns of plasma cortisol and prolactin in patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) during a controlled laboratory experiment. Method: 25 patients (12 men, 13 women), aged 24–50, with recurrent FD, and 25 pair-wise gender- and age-matched community control subjects were studied at a gastroenterological laboratory in a Swedish university hospital. In an experiment, after a rest period, subjects were studied during a neutral interview and a stress interview. Before and during interventions, blood samples were drawn for later peptide analyses. The main outcome measures were the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale, heart rate, blood pressure, plasma cortisol and prolactin. Results: Mean plasma cortisol concentration correlated negatively with diarrhoea symptoms (partial correlation; p < 0.01). The level of plasma proclatin (µg/l) was significantly lower (paired t test; p < 0.01) in the patient group (mean = 3.34, CI: 2.75–3.93) compared to the control group (mean = 4.70, CI: 3.63–5.78). During the stress interview, prolactin increased significantly in both groups. When the whole sample was divided according to degree of reflux symptoms, those with high reflux symptomatology had lower prolactin (ANCOVA with covariates for group, gender, age, body mass index and smoking; p < 0.05). Conclusion: Plasma prolactin concentration was significantly lower in FD patients compared to a matched control group. A high degree of reflux symptoms was significantly associated with inhibition of the prolactin increase during a stress interview.

Alexithymia, emotions and PTSD; findings from a longitudinal study of refugees

“…It supports a hypothesis that prolactin may play a role in alexithymia (21). This could explain the seemingly paradoxical inverse correlation between an instrument measuring in part ''incapacity to experience affect'' and the pronounced experience of negative affects on the part of the subjects.…”

Altered neuroendocrine response and gastric dysmotility in the Flinders Sensitive Line rat

“…However, those findings could not predict hypersensitivity in the prolactin response as different CNS pathways are involved and as Overstreet et al 31 used a 10‐fold higher dose of buspirone, which may have blocked dopamine receptors as well. One study has indicated that basal prolactin levels and stress‐provoked prolactin release are lower in FD patients 32 . However, that study was confounded by the fact that some patients may actually have suffered from endoscopy‐negative gastro‐oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) or irritable bowel syndrome rather than dyspepsia.…”

Psychosomatic Medicine: Emerging Trends and Perspectives

“…Johnston-Brooks et al [48], for instance, associated household density as a chronic environmental stressor with cardiovascular reactivity as a marker of allostatic load and found a relationship with medical illness in children. The need of combining psychometric and biological measures in laboratory research involved with psychoneuroendocrinology of human disease has therefore emerged [49, 50]. …”