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Enhancement of pentazocine analgesia by clonidine
Newton C Gordon1, Philip H Heller, Jon D Levine
1Departments of Anatomy, Medicine and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Division of Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, CAUSA Department of Emergency Medicine, Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center, Hayward, CAUSA.
Abstract:
Opiate-adrenergic interactions were investigated by studying the effect of the selective alpha 2-adrenergic agonist, clonidine, on the analgesia produced by intravenous placebo and by the predominantly kappa-opiate agonist, pentazocine, in patients with dental postoperative pain. Clonidine did not affect the pain level when administered with intravenous placebo. When administered with pentazocine, clonidine caused a statistically significant increase in pentazocine analgesia. Comparison is made to other opiate-adrenergic interactions and possible mechanisms are discussed.