[The anterior pituitary endocrine function in Parkinson's disease]

Dopamine exerts an inhibitory or stimulant action on some of the hormones produced by the anterior pituitary gland. The dopamine content of the hypothalamus is considerably reduced in patients with Parkinson's disease. We have tested the anterior pituitary endocrine function in such patients to evaluate the repercussions on this function of the dopaminergic deficiency: the secretion of pituitary stimulins was found to be unaltered both at baseline level and after pharmacological stimulation.