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Effect of naloxone on luteinizing hormone secretion in premenstrual syndrome
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston 77030.
Objectives:
To investigate the theory of brain opioid activity disregulation in premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and to discover the changes of central beta-endorphin activity during the menstrual cycle in PMS patients.
Design:
Prospective study.
Setting:
University-based PMS clinic.
Patients:
All the patients and controls were between 20 and 45 years of age, with regular menses for at least six previous cycles. All the patients demonstrated at least 30% score increase in designated symptoms on the Visual Linear Analog Scale during the luteal phase compared with the follicular phase. In contrast, the score changes in the controls were < 30%.
Interventions:
All subjects underwent LH-releasing hormone (LH-RH) stimulation test on days 2 to 3 of the cycle. Five naloxone infusions were administered on days 7 to 8 and 10 to 11, 1 day, 3 to 4 days, and 12 to 13 days after the LH surge as detected by the ovulation prediction kit.
Main Outcome Measures:
Luteinizing Hormone levels were recorded for 1 hour, followed by naloxone infusion at 2 mg/h for 4 hours. Blood samples were collected for LH tests every 15 minutes for 1 hour before, during, and for 1 hour after the infusion.
Results:
All subjects had similar LH response to LH-RH. The integrated area of LH response to naloxone as expressed by percentage of the baseline on each of the 5 days did not show significant differences between the patients and the controls.
Conclusions:
The central beta-endorphin changes, if any, in PMS patients could not be demonstrated in our study.