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Opioids in Pain and Cardiovascular Responses: Overview of Common Features
Author(s) -
CARR DANIEL B.,
VERRIER RICHARD L.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.193
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1540-8167
pISSN - 1045-3873
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8167.1991.tb01367.x
Subject(s) - medicine , opioid , context (archaeology) , neuroscience , excitatory postsynaptic potential , endorphins , nociception , neurotransmission , inhibitory postsynaptic potential , receptor , psychology , biology , paleontology
Common Opioid Actions in Pain and Cardiovascular Stress Responses. This overview describes three parallel aspects of the architecture and function of opioid action in nociceptive and cardiovascular spheres. First, in both circumstances, opioid secretion and receptor activation are essentially dormant during basal conditions and assume physiological importance only during stress. Second, in either context, opioids produce their responses by activating complementary mechanisms centrally and in the periphery. Third, endorphins act as “neuromodulators” of either type of response through a typical cellular architecture in which they diminish underlying excitatory neurotransmission.