Evaluating the Role of Serotonin in Hot Flashes After Breast Cancer Using Acute Tryptophan Depletion

摘要

ObjectiveAmong women with breast cancer, hot flashes are frequent, severe and bothersome symptoms that can negatively impact quality of life and compromise compliance with life-saving medications (e.g., tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors). Clinicians' abilities to treat hot flashes are limited due to inadequate understanding of physiological mechanisms involved in hot flashes. Using an acute tryptophan depletion paradigm, we tested whether alterations in central serotonin levels were involved in the induction of hot flashes in women with breast cancer.