Abstract

Background: Researches done over different parts of the world show that hyperprolactinemia in psychotic patients is dependent on many factors such as age, gender, any thyroidal abnormality, drugs such as antipsychotics or antidepressants, psychological stress, and genre of psychosis. In patients taking antipsychotic treatments, prolactin blood levels may rise up to 10 times the normal values. It is very important to differentiate between prolactin-secreting tumor in pituitary and antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia. There has been fewer researches on this topic in Eastern India, so it aims to properly estimate the amount of prolactin rise; a patient has to face after taking anti-psychotic medications and might also help the psychiatrists to adjust the dosage of anti-psychotics or to add some other drugs to lower the prolactin level along with the anti-psychotics in Eastern India.

Aim and Objectives: The aims and objectives of the study are to estimate serum prolactin in diagnosed psychiatric patients taking antipsychotic drugs for at least 3 months and to study the difference in serum prolactin between recently diagnosed psychiatric patients taking antipsychotic drugs for at least 3 months and age and gender-matched mentally healthy patients without any psychiatric complication and without any history of in taking antipsychotic drugs.

Materials and Methods: The study was conducted over a period of 4 months at Central Laboratory, Dept of Biochemistry, MCK. Before the conduct of the study, informed consent was taken. Patients diagnosed with psychiatric illness and consuming at least one antipsychotic drug for at least 3 months were enrolled after going through inclusion–exclusion criteria. Serum prolactin was measured with help of CLIA (ADVIA CENTAUR).

Results: As per our study done in Eastern Indian population, in the female group of psychiatric patients (aged between 18 and 45 years) taking antipsychotics, the prolactin level was 23.6 ± 4.5 ng/ml, and in age-matched control female group, prolactin level was 9.2 ± 3.1 ng/mL, the difference is statistically significant (P < 0.001). Moreover, in male psychiatric patients (aged between 18 and 45 years) taking antipsychotics, the prolactin level was 14.3 ± 1.7 ng/mL, and in age-matched control male group, prolactin level was 8.5 ± 1.5 ng/mL, the difference is statistically significant (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: As per our study, psychiatric patients of both gender taking antipsychotic drugs had higher serum prolactin level than age and gender-matched mentally healthy persons not taking antipsychotic drugs. While the limitation of this study was its small sample size, another issue that must be taken into consideration is the fact that prolactin levels can also depend on menstrual cycles in women. In our study, there were 40 (57%) females who were still menstruating.

Key words: Psychiatric Patients; Antipsychotic Drugs; Prolactin