Pituitary Function and Psychosis: Cause Or Effect?

Abstract

The changes in pituitary gland function in mental illness are under intensive study. This is because the regulation of pituitary function by the brain involves monoamine neurotransmitters, and changes in hormonal secretion may thus reflect general fluctuations in monoamine activity in the brain. Characteristic patterns of change of diagnostic and therapeutic significance may also emerge. Thus, adrenocorticotrophic hormone secretion and adrenal corticosteroid activity are enhanced in depression, largely through the occurrence of additional secretory spikes of ACTH and the lack during the late evening or early morning of the normal fall in Cortisol secretion. Dexamethasone is less able to inhibit ACTH secretion in depression, while a fall in plasma glucose may less readily induce growth hormone secretion (Ettigi and Brown, 1977; Gruen, 1978). Nevertheless, there is no assurance that a monoamine neurotransmitter system concerned with pituitary function is affected in the same way as one influencing psychic outlook.