Pre- and postdexamethasone cortisol and prolactin levels in sexual dysfunction and normal controls

Abstract

Initially, the Dexamethasone Suppression Test (DST) was reported to be a specific marker for endogenous depression (Carroll 1982). Recent studies however suggest that supposedly abnormal DST results may also occur in healthy controls (Stokes et al. 1985) and in a number of other psychiatric disorders (Holsboer and Benkert 1985), though the rate of nonsuppressors is higher in major depressive disorder (Stokes et al. 1985). Dexamethasone has also been shown to decrease prolactin levels, an effect that is more often found in normal controls and in nonendogenous depression than in endogenous depression (Rupprecht et al. 1987). Hyperprolactinemia may induce sexual dysfunction (Braunstein 1983), whereas in psychogenic sexual dysfunction, Benkert and Witt (1980) and Miller et al. (1980) reported normal prolactin levels, and others even lowered prolactin levels (Natoli et al. 1985). As no data are available