[The effect of endogenous opioids in blood pressure regulation and arterial hypertension].

There are numerous hints to the participation of endogenous opioids in the tonic regulation of blood pressure and in pathogenesis and maintenance of essential hypertension. Endogenous mu- and delta-receptor agonists of the central nervous system seem to regulate long-term control of the sympathetic tone in essential hypertension. In the initial stage of hypertension, altered responses to opioid agonists and antagonists could be demonstrated in young spontaneously hypertensive rats. In young, but not in old hypertensive patients alterations of plasma concentrations of endogenous opioids were found. Reactivity and reagibility of blood pressure seem to be regulated rather independently from endogenous opioids, but they may modulate the influence of psychosocial stress on blood pressure.