Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T11:14:21.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Blunted Prolactin Responses to d-Fenfluramine in Sociopathy

Evidence for Subsensitivity of Central Serotonergic Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Veronica O'Keane ,
Eamonn Moloney ,
Helen O'Neill ,
Art O'Connor ,
Charles Smith  and
Timothy G. Dinan
Veronica O'Keane
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Unit, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8
Eamonn Moloney
Affiliation:
Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14
Helen O'Neill
Affiliation:
Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14
Art O'Connor
Affiliation:
Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14
Charles Smith
Affiliation:
Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin 14
Timothy G. Dinan*
Affiliation:
Trinity College Medical School, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Republic of Ireland
*
∗Psychiatric Unit, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Republic of Ireland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using a neuroendocrine probe we studied nine male’ offenders in a forensic hospital, convicted of murder, with a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, who had been behaviourally ‘quiescent’ for varying periods and who had not recently been abusing drugs. Nine healthy age-matched men also participated. All subjects received 30 mg d-fenfluramine (d-FEN), a 5–HT releasing agent, orally, after an overnight fast, and serial samples for prolactin estimation were taken hourly for five hours. Responses were significantly impaired in the patients, suggesting a subsensitivity of certain 5–HT systems in antisocial personality disorder, regardless of recent or ongoing behavioural disturbance.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 5 , May 1992 , pp. 643 - 646
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Barbieri, C., Magnoni, V., Rauhe, W. G., et al (1983) Effect of fenfluramine on prolactin secretion in obese patients: evidence for serotonergic regulation of prolactin in man. Clinical Endocrinology, 19, 705–710.Google Scholar
Brown, G. L., Goodwin, F. K., Ballenger, J. C., et al (1979) Aggression in humans correlates with cerebrospinal fluid metabolites. Psychiatric Research, 1, 131–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. L., Ebert, M. H., Goyer, P. F., et al (1982) Aggression, suicide and serotonin: relationship to CSF amine metabolites. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 741–746.Google Scholar
Cloninger, C. R. (1988) Neurogenic adaptive mechanisms in alcoholism. Science, 236, 410–416.Google Scholar
Cloninger, C. R., Christiansen, R. C., Reich, J., et al (1978) Implications of sex differences in the prevalences of antisocial personality, alcoholism and criminality for familial transmission. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 941–951.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coccaro, E. F., Siever, L. J., Klar, H. M., et al (1989) Serotonergic studies in patients with affective and personality disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 587–599.Google Scholar
Dackis, C. H., Gold, M. S., Estroff, H. E., et al (1984) Hyperprolactinaemia in cocaine abuse. Society of Neurosciences Abstracts, 10, 1099.Google Scholar
Dinan, T. G., Barry, S., Yatham, L. N., et al (1990) The reproducibility of the prolactin response to buspirone: relationship to the menstrual cycle. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 5, 119–123.Google Scholar
Fishbein, D. H., Lozovsky, D. & Jaffe, J. H. (1989) Impulsivity, aggression and neuroendocrine responses to serotonergic stimulation in substance abusers. Biological Psychiatry, 25, 1049–1066.Google Scholar
Ganin, F. & Klebbr, H. (1985) Neuroendocrine findings in chronic cocaine abusers: a preliminary report. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 569–573.Google Scholar
Garattini, S., Mennini, T. & Samanin, R. (1987) From fenfluramine racemate to d-fenfluramine. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 499, 156–166.Google Scholar
Haertzen, C. A., Martin, W. E., Ross, F. E., et al (1980) Psychopathic states inventory (PSI): development of a short test for measuring psychopathic states. International Journal of Addiction, 15, 137–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Invernizzi, R., Berettera, C., Garattini, S., et al (1989) D- and L-isomers of fenfluramine differ markedly in their interaction with brain serotonin and catecholamines in the rat. European Journal of Pharmacology, 120, 9–15.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. A. & Sherman, B. M. (1985) Serotonergic regulation of prolactin and growth hormone secretion in man. Acta Endocrinologica, 110, 152–157.Google ScholarPubMed
Linnolia, M., Virkkunen, M., Scheinin, M., et al (1983) Low cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid concentrations differentiates impulsive from non-impulsive violent behaviour. Life Sciences, 33, 2609–2614.Google Scholar
Mitchell, P., Smythe, G., Parker, G., et al (1990) Hormonal responses to fenfluramine in depressive subtypes. British Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 551–557.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moss, H. B., Yao, J. K. & Panzak, G. L. (1990) Serotonergic responsivity and behavioural dimensions in antisocial personality disorder with substance abuse. Biological Psychiatry, 28, 325–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muhlauer, H. D. (1985) Human aggression and the role of serotonin. Pharmacopsychiatry, 18, 218–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Keane, V. & Dinan, T. G. (1991) Prolactin and Cortisol responses to d-fenfluramine in major depression: evidence for diminished responsibility of central serotonergic function. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1009–1015.Google Scholar
O'Keane, V., O'Hanlon, M., Webb, M., et al (1991) D-Fenfluramine prolactin responses throughout the menstrual cycle: evidence for an oestrogen-induced alteration. Clinical Endocrinology, 34, 289–292.Google Scholar
Quattrone, A., Tedeschi, G., Aguglla, F., et al (1983) Prolactin secretion in man: a useful tool to evaluate the activity of drugs on central 5-hydroxytryptaminergic neurones: studies with fenfluramine. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 16, 471–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shimatsu, A., Kato, Y., Ohata, H., et al (1984) Involvement of hypothalamic vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in prolactin secretion induced by serotonin in the rat. Endocrinology, 97, 1096.Google Scholar
Siever, L. J., Murphy, D. A., Slater, S., et al (1984) Plasma prolactin changes following fenfluramine in depressed patients compared to controls: an evaluation of central serotonergic responsivity in depression. Life Sciences, 34, 1029–1039.Google Scholar
van de Kar, L. D. & Bethea, C. L. (1982) Pharmacological evidence that serotonergic stimulation of prolactin release is mediated via the dorsal raphe nucleus. Neuroendocrinology, 35, 225–230.Google Scholar
van Pragg, H. M., Kahn, R. S., Asnis, G. M., et al (1987) Denosologization of biological psychiatry or the specificity of 5-HT disturbances in psychiatric disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders, 13, 1–8.Google Scholar
Yatham, L., Barry, S. & Dinan, T. G. (1989) Serotonin in the psychobiology of premenstrual syndrome. Lancet, i, 1447–1448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.