Observations placeholder
Anti-psychotics caused delusions of pregnancy
Identifier
006742
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Hyperprolactinaemia or hyperprolactinemia (HP) is the presence of abnormally high levels of prolactin in the blood. Normal levels are less than 500 mIU/L [20 ng/mL or ug/L] for women, and less than 450 mIU/L for men.
Prolactin is a peptide hormone produced by the anterior pituitary gland that is primarily associated with lactation and plays a vital role in breast development during pregnancy. Hyperprolactinaemia may cause galactorrhea (production and spontaneous flow of breast milk) and disruptions in the normal menstrual period in women and hypogonadism, infertility and erectile dysfunction in men.
A description of the experience
Psychosomatics. 2008 Mar-Apr;49(2):163-7. doi: 10.1176/appi.psy.49.2.163. Antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia and delusion of pregnancy. Ahuja N, Moorhead S, Lloyd AJ, Cole AJ. Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, UK. niraj.ahuja@ntw.nhs.uk
The authors describe 12 patients with antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia.
Six patients had erroneous ideas of being pregnant (four delusional and two non-delusional) temporally associated with hyperprolactinemia and resolving as prolactin levels returned to normal.
The remaining six patients did not develop such ideas.
Contrasting the clinical features of the two groups of patients in the context of existing literature informs on the possible biological and cognitive mechanisms that can be hypothesized to underlie the relationship between hyperprolactinemia due to antipsychotics and the development of inaccurate beliefs and feelings about pregnancy, and the effect of current mental state on the propensity to develop these beliefs.
PMID: 18354070