| Title |
Prolactin, Psychological Stress and Environment in Humans: Adaptation and Maladaptation
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Pituitary, March 2003
|
| DOI | 10.1023/a:1026229810876 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Luis Gonçalves Sobrinho |
| Abstract |
Non-puerperal lactation and/or hyperprolactinemia in humans have been related to psychological variables in a variety of ways: (1) Non-puerperal nursing; (2) Pseudopregnancy; (3) Rapid weight gain; (4) Psychogenic galactorrhea; (5) Acute prolactin responses to psychological stress; (6) High prolactin levels in persons who cope passively in real life stress situations; (7) Paternal deprivation in women with pathological hyperprolactinemia; (8) Clinical onset of prolactinomas following life-events. Publications on the above subjects are scattered in the literature as curiosities, anecdotal case-reports or unexplained associations, as there is no theoretical frame of reference to accommodate them. We propose that prolactin is a component of a biological, "maternal", subroutine, adaptive to the care of the young, which promotes accumulation of fat for the extraordinary expenses of pregnancy and lactation, the production of milk and maternal behavior. In an attempt to characterize the stimuli responsible for the activation of the maternal subroutine in the absence of pregnancy we studied the hormonal profiles of female volunteers during three types of sessions under hypnosis: (1) Relaxation-only, control sessions; (2) Sessions in which a fantasy of "nursing" was induced; (3) Sessions of evocations of memories. Prolactin surges were related to the evocation, with rage, of humiliating experiences, but not with the fantasy of nursing. Cortisol surges were related to surprise and shock and were negatively associated with prolactin. In conclusion--Prolactin and cortisol are measurable markers of two different, and alternative, coping strategies to "psychological stress". |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 82 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1 | 1% |
| Brazil | 1 | 1% |
| Unknown | 80 | 98% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 18 | 22% |
| Researcher | 12 | 15% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 7 | 9% |
| Other | 5 | 6% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 4 | 5% |
| Other | 13 | 16% |
| Unknown | 23 | 28% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 13 | 16% |
| Psychology | 13 | 16% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 9 | 11% |
| Social Sciences | 5 | 6% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 4 | 5% |
| Other | 14 | 17% |
| Unknown | 24 | 29% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 November 2021.
All research outputs
#8,534,528
of 25,373,627 outputs
Outputs from Pituitary
#172
of 549 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#21,142
of 62,542 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Pituitary
#1
of 2 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,373,627 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 549 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 3.8. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its peers.
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