Restoration of ACTH/cortisol and LH responses to naloxone by chronic dopaminergic treatment in Parkinson's disease

Summary Naloxone is unable to stimulate ACTH/cortisol secretion in patients with de novo Parkinson's disease, suggesting a reduced endogenous opioid control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in parkinsonian patients. In the present study we examined whether Parkinson's disease also impairs the secretion of LH, which is under the inhibitory control of different opioid peptides than ACTH/cortisol. In addition, we examined whether a chronic dopaminergic therapy for at least one year with levodopa (450 mg/day) plus benserazide (112.5 mg/day) in 3 divided oral doses/day of Madopar modifies the ACTH/cortisol and/or the LH response to naloxone (4 mg as an i. v. bolus plus 10 mg infused in 2 hours). Ten parkinsonian patients (aged 52–62 years) and 8 normal controls (50–60 years) were tested with naloxone and in a different occasion with normal saline. The parkinsonian patients were tested both before and after dopaminergic treatment. Tests started at 09.00 h and lasted 2.5 hours. Basal ACTH/cortisol and LH levels were similar in all groups. During saline tests, ACTH/cortisol levels showed a slight physiological decline in all groups, whereas LH levels remained constant. Naloxone administration significantly increased the plasma levels of ACTH/cortisol and LH in the normal controls, but not in the parkinsonian patients before the dopaminergic treatment. In contrast, dopaminergic therapy restored significant ACTH/cortisol and LH responses to naloxone in parkinsonian patients. In fact, after levodopa plus benserazide, naloxone-induced ACTH, cortisol and LH increments in parkinsonian patients were significantly higher than before therapy and were indistinguishable from those observed in the normal controls. These data suggest that in men Parkinson's-related dopaminergic alterations may underlie the defective endogenous opioid control of ACTH/cortisol and LH secretion.