[Prolactin in the alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Role of the dopaminergic system]

The basal prolactinemia and the prolactinic reserve were investigated in 30 chronic alcoholics, during the alcohol withdrawal syndrome. In 80% of these patients, the prolactinic reserve was extremely low, while in 16,66% of them was normal or near the lowest limits, recognizing in the exaggerated dopaminergic central activity the responsible pathogenetic mechanism. The dopaminergic hyperactivity fits into a general context of the sympathetic-adrenergic hypertonia, which notoriously plays a primary pathogenetic role in the pathogenesis of the alcohol withdrawal syndrome. In 5 patients with an inhibited prolactin response, a normalization of the prolactin reserve was registered in a test (the same methoclopramide test) carried out after 2-3 months of abstinence from alcoholic beverages, as an evidence of the normalization of the central dopaminergic activity and of a dopaminergic hyperactivity during the alcohol withdrawal syndrome.