Thirst following water deprivation in humans

Abstract

The effect of 24-h water deprivation and subsequent drinking on systemic fluid balance and subjective sensations has been determined in human beings. The deprivation caused significant intracellular and extracellular depletions, thirst, and a dry unpleasant tasting mouth. During rehydration, subjects drank 65% of their total intake within 2.5 min. The marked decrease in drinking rate thereafter, and the alleviation of thirst, occurred before plasma dilution had become significant. This attenuation of drinking was subjectively attributed to stomach fullness. Presystemic factors may therefore be important for drinking termination in humans. Within 20 min systemic deficits were removed, but intermittent drinking continued at a low rate, reportedly to alleviate unpleasant oral sensations, Following rehydration, the concentrated urine of hydropenia had disappeared. However, the excretion of solute-free water varied between subjects. Plasma renin activity was significantly elevated by water deprivation, while after rehydration this activity had decreased to levels not significantly different from predeprivation values.

Perioperative thirst: an analysis from the perspective of the Symptom Management Theory

“…A visual analog scale has been used due to its ability to measure subjective and self-reported symptoms (1,4,14) . An assessment scale for dialysis patients has also been validated.…”

“…This scale covers three domains: duration, frequency and discomfort (15) . Thirst can also be evaluated by the association of laboratory osmolarity analysis with the perception of thirst, covering aspects such as: perceived intensity, desire to drink water, perception of dry mouth, taste in the mouth and gastric satiety (14) .…”

Dehydration symptoms of palliative care cancer patients

“…Self-report methods have also been used to study the symptoms related to dehydration (Rolls and Rolls, 1980;Phillips et al, 1984;Wirth and Folstein, 1982;Engell et al, 1987).…”

“…Although the psychometrie properties of these "dehydration mouth, tacky and sticky feeling tongue, etc) by the 3tudy subj ects provide basic information that the same construct is being measured by the VAS Rolls, 1980 andPhillips et al, 1984).…”

Salt-Induced Thirst Results in Increased Finickiness in Humans

“…How thirsty humans react to water sources that vary in palatability has not been investigated, although it is known that thirst increases positive hedonic evaluations of room-temperature tapwater (Rolls et al, 1980). Anecdotally, it might be suspected that in high-need states, water would be greeted with considerable enthusiasm, and this does seem to be the case.…”