[A review of pregnancy-induced analgesia]

Pregnancy-induced analgesia is of interest to anesthesiologists because of a general clinical impression that a parturient has a lowered requirement for anesthetics and analgesics. This fact may be mainly explained that endogenous analgesic mechanisms are stimulated by pregnancy. It has been suggested that stress activates natural pain-inhibitory systems mediated by endogenous opioid and non-opioid mechanism. Activation of intrinsic analgesia systems by stress is described based on a review of literature. This paper will give an overview of experimental and clinical studies regarding pregnancy-induced analgesia and will discuss mechanisms and potential implications for novel therapeutic approaches.