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The Effects of Phenothiazines on Endocrine Function: I

Patients with Inappropriate Lactation and Amenorrhoea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. J. V. Beumont ,
M. G. Gelder ,
H. G. Friesen ,
G. W. Harris ,
P. C. B. MacKinnon ,
B. M. Mandelbrote  and
D. W. Wiles
P. J. V. Beumont
Affiliation:
Littlemore Hospital
M. G. Gelder
Affiliation:
Littlemore Hospital
H. G. Friesen
Affiliation:
Royal Victoria Hospital Montreal; now at Dept. of Physiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
G. W. Harris
Affiliation:
Department of Human Anatomy, University of Oxford
P. C. B. MacKinnon
Affiliation:
Department of Human Anatomy, University of Oxford
B. M. Mandelbrote
Affiliation:
Littlemore Hospital
D. W. Wiles
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, The Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
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Extract

Shortly after the advent of modern psychopharmacological agents in the 1950s it was noted that their clinical use led occasionally to galactorrhoea (Gäde and Heinrich, 1955; Winnik and Tennenbaum, 1955), to menstrual disorders (Polishuk and Kulcsar, 1956), and to false positive pregnancy tests (Foxworth and Lehman, 1957; Marks and Shackcloth, 1966). The drugs were also shown to have a profound effect upon the oestrous cycle (Cranston and Segal, 1960) and breast activity (Sulman and Winnik, 1956; Sulman, 1970) of laboratory animals. Most published reports incriminated the phenothiazines, especially chlorpromazine, and the literature pertaining to this drug was reviewed in detail by De Wied (1967); but similar effects have been noted with several related psychotropic substances (Shader and Di Mascio, 1970). These side effects are generally accepted to result mainly from the action of the drugs on the hypothalamus (De Wied, 1967), but the precise mechanisms involved are not fully understood.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 124 , Issue 582 , May 1974 , pp. 413 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

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