Treatment of antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Background: Hyperprolactinemia is a common antipsychotic-induced adverse event in psychiatric patients, and the quality of clinical studies investigating the best treatments has varied. Thus, to better summarize the clinical evidence, we performed an umbrella review of overlapping systematic reviews and meta-analyses for the treatment of antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia.

Methods: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Scopus and EMBASE were searched, and reviews and meta-analyses meeting our inclusion criteria were selected. Relevant data were extracted, and an umbrella review was conducted of all included meta-analyses. The quality of included meta-analyses was assessed by using PRISMA scores and AMSTAR 2 quality evaluation. Finally, the clinical evidence for appropriate treatments was summarized and discussed.

Results: Five meta-analyses published between 2013 and 2020 met the requirements for inclusion in this umbrella review. The PRISMA scores of the included meta-analyses ranged from 19.5-26. AMSTAR 2 quality evaluation showed that 2 of the 5 included meta-analyses were of low quality and 3 were of very low quality. The included meta-analyses provide clinical evidence that adding aripiprazole or a dopamine agonist can effectively and safely improve antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia. Two meta-analyses also showed that adjunctive metformin can reduce serum prolactin level, but more clinical trials are needed to confirm this finding.

Conclusion: Adjunctive dopamine agonists have been proven to be effective and safe for the treatment of antipsychotic-induced hyperprolactinemia. Among the researched treatments, adding aripiprazole may be the most appropriate.