Drug-induced hyperprolactinemia: mechanism of development, features of diagnosis and treatment

Abstract

One of the causes of non-tumor related hyperprolactinemia is taking a medications. Physicians of various specialties, such as cardiologists, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, and neurologists, encounter hyperprolactinemia as a side effect of drug therapy in their practice, but it is most often observed in the practice of a psychiatrist when treating patients with psychotropic medications. Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the frequency of prescriptions of antidepressants and neuroleptics due to post-COVID-19 syndrome, anxiety and stress caused by the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection. There is also a predisposition to the development of hyperprolactinemia on the background of taking neuroleptics due to genetic features of patients. Currently, there is no established common algorithm for diagnosis and treatment of drug-induced hyperprolactinemia in the world. Based on a review of foreign and domestic literature, the article discusses in detail the mechanisms of development and various approaches to the correction of iatrogenic (drug-induced) hyperprolactinemia, assesses the prolactogenic activity of neuroleptics, and proposes algorithms for prolactin monitoring and correction of hyperprolactinemia using dopamine agonists. Often the tactics of management of such patients need to be discussed by a team of specialized physicians.

Keywords

• prolactin
• drug-induced hyperprolactinemia
• dopamine agonists
• antipsychotics
• antidepressants