Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology

Galactorrhea induced by şuoxetine in a patient diagnosed with trichotillomania: a case report

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2014; 24: Supplement S173-S173
Read: 550 Published: 18 February 2021

Galactorrhea should be considered in the differential diagnosis of other medical conditions (pituitary tumors, sarcoidosis, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, PCOS, empty sella syndrome) while several drugs can cause galactorrhea. Galactorrhea is a very common side effect in psychiatric patients. In some cases, galactorrhea has been reported to appear as a side effect during treatment with different types of antidepressants. In some studies, antidepressant drugs via the serotonergic system, has been shown to lead to increased prolactin. In this article, here we are going to present a case of a 43-years old,married female with trichotillomania. The hair-pulling behavior had first appeared when she was 13 years of age. She recovered spontaneously in this period. She started to pull out of her scalp hair again when her daughter was born, eight years ago. She had recurrent hair pulling behavioral the bathroom, especially after she forced her daughter to eat. She had a repeated attempts to decrease or stop hair pulling in every two months period. She reported a feeling of mounting tension before the act of hair pulling and the tension was alleviated when she pulled the hair out. Hair loss in both parietal and temporal regions was prominent. She was covering that region with a wig and her social functioning was significantly impaired. She was diagnosed to have trichotillomania according to the criteria of DSM IV. There was no comorbid Axis I psychiatric disorders. Initially, we precscribed paroxetine 5 mg/ day and increased up 20 mg/day in 2 months. Galactorrhea was not observed during the paroxetine treatment but we ceased paroxetine due to weight gain and started şuoxetine. She noticed white-creamy colored discharge from both of breast on the fourth month of treatment. There were no abnormalities in blood chemistry, thyroid function tests and beta human chorionic gonadotropin. Magnetic resonance imaging of the hypothalamic/pituitary area was normal. FSH, DHEAS and estradiol levels were normal and the serum prolactin level was 56.6. Galactorrhea was not observed when we ceased şuoxetine treatment. We continued her treatment with psychotherapy. The temporal relationship between reducing and cessation of şuoxetine and the remission of galactorrhea suggests that galactorrhea may occur because of şuoxetine treatment. Therefore, further research is required to better understand the mechanisms of actions and adverse events of SSRIs.

EISSN 2475-0581