Dopamine agonists caused weight loss of 4-11 lbs in heavy men with prolactinoma

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Monday, August 30, 2010 11:30 am Email this article
Giving the dopamine agonist cabergoline (Dostinex, Cabaser) or bromocriptine (Parlodel) to heavy men with prolactinoma -- a noncancerous pituitary tumor that produces the hormone prolactin and causes prolactin levels to be be greatly elevated -- appears to cause weight loss.

Weight loss seems to occur in heavy men only, whereas lean men gained weight.

One woman gained 33 lbs, however, in the other 16 women, there did not appear to be much of a weight change after 6 months.

This is based on a very small sample size -- only 3 heavy men and 2 lean men -- so these results should be viewed as very preliminary.

By approximating body weight from a chart in the paper, here are the weight changes in the 5 men.

• 11 lbs weight loss in one man, reducing weight from 260 lbs to 249 lbs


• 7 lbs weight loss in another man, reducing weight from 220 lbs to 213 lbs


• 4 lbs weight loss in another man, reducing weight from 176 lbs to 172 lbs


• 4 lbs weight gain in another man, increasing weight from 148 lbs to 152 lbs


• 12 lbs weight gain in another man, reducing weight from 143 lbs to 155 lbs

Drug Doses

Drug doses not specified

Unfortunately, they did not give the doses they used.

They also noted that most people were given cabergoline (Dostinex, Cabaser), and only a few were given bromocriptine (Parlodel).

Unfortunately, they did not specify which subjects got which drug.

REFERENCE

Dos Santos Silva CM, Barbosa FR, Lima G, Warszawski L, Fontes R, Domingues R, Gadelha M. Bmi and metabolic profile in patients with prolactinoma before and after treatment with dopamine agonists. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2010 Jun 17, Epub ahead of print.

AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION

Cintia M. dos Santos Silva
Division of Endocrinology
Hospital Universitario Clementino Fraga Filho
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Bromocriptine (Ergoset)

• Dopamine agonists