5-Hydroxytryptamine supersensitivity as a new theory of headache and central pain: A clinical pharmacological approach with p-chlorophenylalanine

Intermittent Hypoendorphinaemia in Migraine Attack

“…Fenclonine, a 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT) synthesis inhibitor, when administered to HA sufferers (but not to controls) induces systemic pains in 50% of subjects, thus supporting the hypothesis of a fragility of 5HT turnover in their antinociceptive system (2).…”

Clinical and biochemical effects of parachlorophenylalanine in a patient with the carcinoid syndrome

“…Muscle pains have been reported previously in association with the use of PCPA in patients with migraine (Sicuteri, Anselmi and Del Bianco, 1973). The cause of the pains is unknown but Sicuteri et aL, (1973) suggested it may be related in part to depletion of 5-HT from the central nervous system.…”

“…In patients with the carcinoid syndrome it has been reported that flushing may occur independently of any increase in 5-HIAA urinary excretion rate (Davis and Rosenberg, 1961;Smith et al, 1964), and that PCPA, whilst an effective treatment for carcinoid diarrhoea, does not lessen the flushing attacks (Grahame-Smith, 1972;Marks, 1979). The patient reported here had abolition of flushing attacks and a marked lowering of the 5-HIAA urinary excretion rate whilst taking PCPA.…”

Pain as a symptom in depressive disorders and its relationship to platelet monoamine oxidase activity

“…It has also been shown that hyperalgesia, hyperpathia and spontaneous pain can be provoked by treatment with a serotonin-depleting agent (Sicuteri et al, 1975). Later on results from animal experiments (Akil and Myer, 1972;Akil and Liebeskind, 1975), and from pharmacological and electrophysiological studies, studies of lesions and dietary studies have confirmed the importance of the serotinergic pathways in the pain syndrome (Basbaum and Fields, 1978;Messing and Lytle, 1977).…”