Posted by Larry Hoover on July 26, 2003, at 12:27:06
In reply to Re: aspirin and serotonin, and also opiods » Larry Hoover, posted by samplemethod on July 21, 2003, at 8:24:49
> Hey Lar have you found anything interesting on aspirin related to serotonin lately?
>
> cheersFrankly, it's hard to find articles which discuss aspirin's effects in the brain which are also understandable by anyone other than super-geek medical-researcher types. I found one abstract which is fairly easily understood. Nociception is the perception of pain, so antinociceptive implies blocking of pain. 400 mg/kg is a huge dose of aspirin, by the way, equivalent to 86 regular aspirin tablets (325 mg size) consumed by the "standard" 70 kg (154 lb.) human.
It's anyone's guess if this effect is also seen in humans, at the more normal dose of aspirin. That said, addiction to aspirin is a recognized phenomenon.
Lar
Pharmacology. 1997 Feb;54(2):84-91.
Serotonin and opiate involvement in the antinociceptive effect of acetylsalicylic acid.
Pini LA, Vitale G, Sandrini M.
Department of Internal Medicine, University of Modena, Italy.
Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), 400 mg/kg i.p., displayed antinociceptive activity in both the hot-plate and the formalin test. ASA significantly increased brain serotonin (5-HT) content and reduced the number of 5-HT2 receptors in cortical brain membranes 30 min after drug administration. Pretreatment with naloxone abolished the antinociceptive activity of both ASA and morphine in the hot-plate and formalin tests and prevented the increase in cerebral 5-HT concentration and the reduction in 5-HT2 receptors in cortical membranes induced by ASA. The serum salicylate concentrations were not affected by pretreatment with naloxone. These data indicate a central antinociceptive activity of ASA and suggest that ASA may exert its antinociceptive action through serotonergic and opiatergic pathways.
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:239530
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030723/msgs/245538.html