Studies of Drugs Given Before Anaesthesia Xiii: Pentazocine and Other Opiate Antagonists

Analgesic effectiveness of the narcotic agonist‐antagonists.

“…However, Dundee (1972) noted that in studies which he and his colleagues (Hamilton et al, 1967) had carried out in preoperative patients, 6% developed psychotomimetic reactions (2% severe) on parenterally administered doses of pentazocine 60 mg, and he commented that, in retrospect, many of the dysphoric side-effects which he had attributed to precipitated withdrawal in an earlier study of levorphanol/levallorphan combinations (Dundee, 1964) also may actually have been psychotomimetic reactions. Beaver et al (1966) also commented on the difficulty in determining whether, in patients who have previously received narcotics, dysphoric reactions after pentazocine represent borderline precipitated withdrawal, agonistic effects of pentazocine, or a combination of both.…”

Pentazocine

“…The sedative effects of different doses of pentazocine and its efficacy in allaying apprehension when given as a pre-operative medication both in children and adults, have been compared with the effects of morphine (Hamilton et al, 1967b;Norris and Telfer, 1968;Rita et al, 1970;Sleeman and Brown, 1971), phenazocine (Hamilton et al, 1967b), diazepam (Brown et al, 1970;Dixon et al, 1970) and a combination of diazepam and pentazocine (Dixon et al, 1970).…”

Effects of Three Narcotic Antagonists (Naltrexone, Diprenorphine, and S-20682) on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate and Electrical Cortical Activity

“…18] and even convulsive episodes can be ob served when pentazocine or cyclazocine had been administered [5]. These partial agonist compounds produce in addition to analgesia also respiratory depression, bradycardia and a depression of cerebral cortical activity in the manner of pure narcotics [13.…”