Prolactin and stress

Abstract

AbstractThere is evidence that stress influences prolactin secretion in animals and humans. Various situations and laboratory stressors can induce a significant increase in prolactin secretion.In animal studies, adaptation to the stress seems to be accompanied by a diminished response of prolactin. This habituation to chronic stress displays a pattern that seems to be stressor‐specific.In flight experiments with human subjects, a similar process of habituation in the prolactin response has been observed in pilots.Given the fact that certain individuals might not habituate to chronic psychogenic stressful stimuli, their behavioral responses to stress might lead them to different neuroendocrine responses. This might explain the individual differences observed in the impact of stress on physical and psychological well‐being.Prolactin might become an important tool in exploring the physiopathologic consequences of certain behaviour patterns and a useful neuroendrocine correlate of the individual response to what we define as stress.