Human Pain Thresholds after the Application of Lypressin, a Vasopressin Analogue

Abstract

Recent animal studies indicate that vasopressin has analgetic properties. The aim of this study was to find out if lypressin, a vasopressin analogue, produces analgesia in man. The effect of i.n. lypressin (5 and 10 I.U.) on experimental pain was tested in healthy humans. The lower dose proved high enough to produce a significant antidiuretic effect. Lypressin did not have any marked analgetic effect at these doses either on ischaemic, cutaneous thermal, or dental pain. The results indicate that lypressin cannot be used for pain relief in man at doses low enough not to produce a hazardous water retention.

Pain sensitivity and vasopressin analgesia are mediated by a gene-sex-environment interaction

“…V1AR is believed to predominate in the central nervous system (CNS) 3 and its involvement in affiliation and social communication in microtine rodents 4 and humans 5-6 is known to be male-specific and genetically determined. In humans, two studies using intranasal AVP analogs observed no 7 or modest effects on acute pain 8 . In rodents, AVP produces clear but modest inhibition of acute, thermal pain after systemic, supraspinal or spinal injection in rodents, but most of the evidence suggests that this analgesia is mediated by the V1BR 9 or the V2R 10-11 .…”