Turner P
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
Ann Acad Med Singap. 1991 Jan;20(1):43-5.
beta-adrenoceptor antagonists such as propranolol have been shown to produce improvement in the symptoms of patients with anxiety states, particularly the somatic or autonomically mediated features of their condition. It is not yet certain whether this is a central or peripheral action of beta-blocking drugs, and whether it is due to beta-adrenoceptor blockade or to another pharmacological action which these drugs possess, such as 5HT receptor blockade. There is experimental evidence that abrupt discontinuation of treatment with beta-blocking drugs is not associated with a central nervous withdrawal syndrome, but the implications are limited because of the lack of agonist models of central nervous beta-adrenoceptor function in man. The original observations on the anti-anxiety effects of propranolol were serendipitous, and illustrate the importance of designing clinical pharmacological studies so that unexpected and unsought information can be recorded.
β-肾上腺素能受体拮抗剂，如普萘洛尔，已被证明可改善焦虑症患者的症状，尤其是其病情中的躯体或自主神经介导的特征。目前尚不确定这是β受体阻滞剂的中枢作用还是外周作用，也不确定这是由于β-肾上腺素能受体阻断还是这些药物所具有的另一种药理作用，如5-羟色胺受体阻断。有实验证据表明，突然停用β受体阻滞剂与中枢神经系统戒断综合征无关，但由于缺乏人类中枢神经系统β-肾上腺素能受体功能的激动剂模型，其影响有限。最初关于普萘洛尔抗焦虑作用的观察是偶然的，这说明了设计临床药理学研究的重要性，以便能够记录意外和未寻求的信息。
