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Related Concept Videos

Skeletal Muscle Relaxants: Therapeutic Uses01:31

Skeletal Muscle Relaxants: Therapeutic Uses

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Skeletal muscle relaxants are used to relax muscle tone and alleviate painful muscle contractions. However, the choice of skeletal muscle relaxants depends on the duration of the surgical procedure in order to minimize potential side effects. Skeletal muscle relaxants like neuromuscular blocking agents [NMBAs] are commonly employed as adjuvants alongside general anesthetics in clinical settings. NMBAs are also used to maintain controlled ventilation during surgery of the larynx or pharynx...
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Peripherally and Centrally Acting Muscle Relaxants: A Comparison01:09

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Skeletal muscle relaxants can target the central nervous system [CNS] to reduce muscle tension or act directly at the neuromuscular junction to induce temporary paralysis. These two classes of muscle relaxants are called centrally acting muscle relaxants and peripherally acting muscle relaxants. They differ in their action, mechanism, administration route, and clinical uses.
Centrally acting muscle relaxants can be further divided into spasmolytic and antispasmodic drugs. Spasmolytic...
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Analgesia and Pain Management01:25

Analgesia and Pain Management

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Pain is critical to various clinical pathologies, provoking an urgent need for effective management. Pain, whether acute or chronic, is a complex neurochemical process. Its alleviation depends on the type, with nonopioid analgesics effective for mild to moderate pain, such as musculoskeletal or inflammatory pain, while neuropathic pain responds best to anticonvulsants, tricyclic antidepressants, or serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors. For severe acute or chronic pain, opioids may be...
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Classification of Skeletal Muscle Relaxants01:28

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Skeletal muscle relaxants are a group of drugs that can reduce muscle stiffness and induce temporary paralysis to relieve pain. These agents can act centrally to reduce muscle tone or spasms in painful conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or spinal injuries; they are called antispasmodics or spasmolytics.
Peripherally acting skeletal muscle relaxants interfere with the neurotransmission at the neuromuscular end plate to induce paralysis during...
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Centrally Acting Muscle Relaxants: Therapeutic Uses01:24

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Centrally acting muscle relaxants reduce muscle tone and tension by interfering with the postsynaptic reflexes in the central nervous system.
Centrally acting drugs are classified into spasmolytic and antispasmodic drugs. Spasmolytic drugs such as baclofen, diazepam, and tizanidine inhibit spinal motor neurons and decrease muscle tone. Spasmolytic drugs are administered for severe and chronic spasms due to multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, stroke, and spinal cord and muscle injuries. However,...
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Directly Acting Muscle Relaxants: Dantrolene and Botulinum Toxin01:26

Directly Acting Muscle Relaxants: Dantrolene and Botulinum Toxin

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Directly acting muscle relaxants like dantrolene and botulinum toxin (BoNT) have distinct mechanisms and applications. Dantrolene, a hydantoin derivative, acts on the ryanodine receptor (RYR1) in skeletal muscle cells. RYR1 are calcium channels present at the sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane. In response to excitation, they release calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum to the cytosol. Calcium promotes actin-myosin-mediated contraction of muscles.
The binding of dantrolene to the RYR1...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Application of Consistent Massage-Like Perturbations on Mouse Calves and Monitoring the Resulting Intramuscular Pressure Changes
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Modulation of Muscle Pain Is Not Somatotopically Restricted: An Experimental Model Using Concurrent Hypertonic-Normal

James S Dunn1, David A Mahns1, Saad S Nagi1,2

  • 1School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia.

Frontiers in Pain Research (Lausanne, Switzerland)
|March 17, 2022
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Muscle pain can be worsened by stimulating other muscles, even with imperceptible stimuli. This suggests central nervous system involvement in pain modulation, affecting pain perception across different body areas.

Keywords:
central sensitizationhyperalgesiahypertonic salinemuscle afferentmuscle painnormal salinesomatotopy

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Pain Research
  • Human Physiology

Background:

  • Previous research demonstrated that cutaneous stimulation amplifies hypertonic saline (HS)-induced muscle pain.
  • The current study investigates muscle-to-muscle interactions in pain modulation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if innocuous stimulation of adjacent, contralateral, and remote muscles can modulate HS-induced forearm muscle pain.
  • To explore the somatotopic organization of pain modulation mechanisms.

Main Methods:

  • Healthy participants received forearm muscle infusions of 5% hypertonic saline (HS) to induce pain.
  • Sub-perceptual infusions of normal saline (NS) were administered to ipsilateral hand, contralateral forearm, and contralateral leg muscles.
  • Psychophysical assessments quantified pain changes during concurrent HS and NS infusions.

Main Results:

  • Infusion of normal saline (NS) into adjacent, contralateral, and remote muscles significantly increased forearm muscle pain (by 16%, 12%, and 15%, respectively).
  • These pain increases were time-locked to NS infusions and reproducible.
  • Participants attributed the increased pain to the forearm, not the NS infusion sites.

Conclusions:

  • Intramuscular HS infusion induces muscle hyperalgesia to sub-perceptual afferent stimulation.
  • Pain modulation occurs in a somatotopically unrestricted manner, suggesting central nervous system (likely supra-spinal) mechanisms are involved.