Peptic ulcer disease epidemiology

Circunstantial evidence directly implicating dopamine in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer in man is the unusual incidence of peptic ulcer disease in dopamine-deficient disorders. From purely descriptive clinical and epidemiologic studies we know that patients with Parkinson s disease, before the introduction of dopamine therapy, had an excess of ulcer disease (72). One report even comments on the curiosity that after initiation of L-DOPA administration the ulcer symptoms have virtually disappeared (72 ). On the other hand, less clearly, schizophrenia which is associated with dopamine excess and/or receptor hyperactivity is accompanied by virtual lack, or decreased prevalence, of peptic ulcer (73-76). Schizophrenia associated with ulcer disease has been viewed as a reportable curiosity in medical literature (75). At present, possibly because of the widespread therapeutic application of neuroleptics, the lack of peptic ulcer disease in schizophrenics is less striking than in the past. On the other hand, we recently observed in our autopsy series perforated duodenal ulcers in two schizophrenic patients who had been on large doses of haloperidol therapy (Szabo, unpublished observation). Thus, even in man, dopamine may indeed be implicated in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer disease. 

PER/I prescription event monitoring see epidemiology, peptic ulcer A disease state characterized by ulceration, initially of the mucosa of the alimentary tract, caused by the action of pepsin and hydrochloric acid. It may be in the body of the stomach (gastric ulcer), the duodenum (duodenal ulcer), jejunum Oejunal ulcer especially in Zollinger-Ellison syndrome) or of the oesophagus (oesophageal ulcer ... 

---