[Clinical relevance of changes in serum prolactin level caused by electroconvulsive therapy]

In this study 15 (4 males, 11 females) depressive patients (according to DSM-III-R criteria), who were refractory to psychopharmacological treatment were referred for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Six ECTs were administered within a period of 3 weeks. Before the first, third and fifth ECT and 15, 30, and 60 minutes after each of these 3 treatments serum levels of prolactin were determined. After six ECTs eight patients showed significant symptomatic improvement, whilst the depressive symptoms in the other seven patients remained more or less unchanged. There was no statistically significant difference with respect to prolactin response following the three ECTs between the symptomatically improved and the unchanged group. There was no correlation of severity of depression and prolactin baseline levels before the first ECT. Neither baseline prolactin levels prior to the first ECT nor prolactin response predicted therapeutic outcome. From this point of view changes in serum prolactin levels do not reflect therapeutic pathways in depression or mechanisms of action of ECT.