Psychosomatic aspects of galactorrhea

We interviewed 33 women with non-puerperal galactorrhea, 5 (15%) of whom had HPRL levels greater than 18 ng/ml and 24 controls, namely women with benign breast lesions. We used a semi-structured interview covering the duration of symptoms, preceding life events and the effect on the relationship of the couple. We also used the Beck depression inventory, the Strauss and Appelt body image questionnaire and an 8 item Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Galactorrheic women were more depressive (P less than 0.1), had more prior life events (P less than 0.001), longer duration of symptoms (P less than 0.01), and less fear of their disease (P less than 0.05) than did controls. Both groups had similar results with the body image questionnaire. Within the study group, results were independent of prolactin (HPRL) levels or amenorrhea.