[Mental disorders and prolactin secretion]

Recent reports suggest that selective endocrine disturbances are often associated with mental disease, and that hormonal responses to treatments with antipsychotic drugs can be related to their clinical efficiency. The importance of central monoamine neuron systems for both hormonal control and mental disease probably accounts for these correlations. Measurement of prolactin, a hormone primarily regulated by hypothalamic dopaminergic neurons, provides a useful tool which can help to define the symptomatology of schizophrenic or depressed patients, to calibrate drug therapy and to obtain advance warning of therapeutical side effects. The hormone can also be used as an excellent index for screening dopamine agonist or antagonist properties of new drugs.