ABSTRACT
Few of the endocrine glands escape completely from the pharmacological effects of alcohol. The fact that quite small doses of alcohol can stimulate release of 5-hydroxytryptamine from certain carcinoid tumours has, for example, been recognised for many years, and its ability to stimulate release of calcitonin from medullary carcinomas of the thyroid is sufficiently predictable (Dymling et al. , 1976) to make it useful diagnostically.
