Effect of bromocriptine on patients with hyperprolactinemia and amenorrhea

This study concerns the clinical and endocrinological results obtained on 31 hyperprolactinemic patients treated with bromocriptine. Twenty-one patients were affected by 'functional' hyperprolactinemia, seven by a prolactinoma, while the remaining three patients, affected also by prolactin-secreting adenoma, had already undergone surgery without satisfactory reduction of hyperprolactinemia and related clinical symptoms. In all patients, bromocriptine promptly produced a normalization of prolactin blood levels together with a resumption of normal ovulatory cycles. The observed therapeutical effects subsided when bromocriptine administration was interrupted. However, on the basis of the present experience, bromocriptine treatment seems to be indicated in patients affected by: 'functional' hyperprolactinemia, as a preventive treatment against the possible evolution of 'idiopathic' hyperprolactinemia into prolactinoma; persistent hyperprolactinemia, even after surgical excision of prolactin-secreting adenomas; and prolactinomas; because of its well known prolactin synthesis and secretion inhibiting action as well as in an attempt to block the tumoral growth.