Dose-related analgesic effects of flupirtine

1. Flupirtine is a novel and, in all probability, centrally acting, analgesic. The present investigation was conducted in order to investigate dose-related effects of perorally administered flupirtine in man, with special regard to specifically analgesic actions, employing a model based on pain-related chemosomatosensory evoked potentials and subjective intensity estimates of painful stimuli. 2. Plasma concentrations of flupirtine measured 2 h after dosing linearly increased as a function of the administered dose. 3. It was possible to reproduce our own previously obtained results, which established the analgesic action of 200 mg flupirtine administered perorally. 4. Intensity estimates linearly decreased as a function of the administered dose, whereas chemosomatosensory evoked potential amplitudes non-linearly changed in relation to the administered dose. 5. In the spontaneous EEG, a dose-dependent increment in the power-spectra was observed, and this mainly in the alpha- and beta-range.