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Sympatholytic Agents

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Pain Medicine

Abstract

Sympatholytic drugs are agents that decrease the activity of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). This is accomplished via a variety of mechanisms that most commonly include adrenergic receptor blockade (e.g., α and β adrenergic receptor antagonism) as well as specific receptor agonism (i.e., α2 adrenergic receptor agonism) (1). The SNS signal, however, may be blocked in other ways (e.g., peripheral ganglionic blockade) (2).

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  1. Blaudszun G, Lysakowski C, Elia N, Tramer MR. Effect of perioperative systemic alpha2 agonists on postoperative morphine consumption and pain intensity: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Anesthesiology. 2012;116(6):1312–22.

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  2. Chan AK, Cheung CW, Chong YK. Alpha-2 agonists in acute pain management. Expert Opin Pharmacother. 2010;11(17):2849–68.

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Correspondence to Yury Khelemsky MD .

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Khelemsky, Y., Gritsenko, K., Curatolo, C. (2017). Sympatholytic Agents. In: Yong, R., Nguyen, M., Nelson, E., Urman, R. (eds) Pain Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43133-8_54

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43133-8_54

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43131-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43133-8

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