Treatment of galactorrhea-amenorrhea syndrome with 2-Br-alpha-ergocryptin (CB 154). Clinical response and pattern of pituitary and steriod hormones before and during therapy.

2 Bromo-alpha-ergocryptine, a specific prolactin inhibitor, was administered to 9 patients suffering from galactorrhea-amenorrhea syndrome of varying aetiology. Plasma levels of FSH, LH, prolactin, total estrogens and progesterone were measured by radioimmunoassy before and after treatment initiation. Prior to treatment, plasma prolactin levels were in all cases supraphysiological. FSH and LH levels were, with the exception of one patient, in the low cyclic range. One patient had subnormal gonadotropin levels, presumably reflecting hypophyseal insufficiency following surgical removal of a pituitary adenoma. Mean plasma levels of total estrogens were in the lower normal range. Administration of CB 154 led in all cases to a reduction of plasma prolactin levels. In eight cases, galactorrhea was suppressed during the first month of treatment. Eight patients menstruated and seven ovulated as indicated by the basal body temperature (BBT) or plasma progesterone measurement. The postoperative hypophyseal tumor patient did not, with the exception of galactorrhea suppression, respond to treatment, presumably due to hypophyseal insufficiency. 2 patients conceived during the course of treatment. One patient, who developed galactorrhea-amenorrhea syndrome as a result of psychopharmacological drug administration received 7,5 mg/day CB 154. Prolactin secretion, as indicated by plasma levels, was inhibited but the inhibitation was much slower in onset than that exhibited by the other patients and this patient ovulated only after 5 months of treatment. Upon withdrawal of CB 154 therapy after 6 to 7 months, the patients redeveloped galactorrhea-amenorrhea syndrome, so that a definitive cure could not be demonstrated.