Psychosomatic Medicine Faster Service from Outside North America
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tulen, J. H.
Right arrow Articles by Boomsma, F.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tulen, J. H.
Right arrow Articles by Boomsma, F.

Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 55, Issue 1 61-69, Copyright © 1993 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Psychological, cardiovascular, and endocrine changes during 6 hours of continuous infusion of epinephrine or norepinephrine in healthy volunteers

JH Tulen, P Moleman, PJ Blankestijn, AJ Man in't Veld, HG van Steenis and F Boomsma
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Rotterdam Dijkzigt, The Netherlands.

Psychological, cardiovascular, endocrine, and metabolic reactions to a sustained infusion of epinephrine (E) and norepinephrine (NE) were studied in 10 healthy male volunteers in a placebo-controlled randomized design. The subjects participated each in three sessions during which they received 6-hr infusion of either E (82 pmol/kg/min), NE (178 pmol/kg/min), or placebo (PLA) (saline, 5.4 ml/hr). Heart rate and intra-arterial blood pressure were recorded continuously. Blood samples for assay of catecholamines, cortisol, prolactin, growth hormone, insulin, triglycerides, and glucose were obtained at regular intervals. Changes in subjective mood were assessed with the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). During infusion of E, arterial plasma epinephrine levels increased 10-fold, which induced significant increases in heart rate, plasma insulin, and glucose levels, and decreases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and diastolic pressure (DAP). NE infusion caused a 5-fold arterial plasma norepinephrine increase and induced a significant decrease in heart rate and increases in MAP, DAP, and glucose levels. The effects were present shortly after initiation of the infusions, remained fairly constant during the 6-hr infusion period and disappeared within 1 hr after the infusions had been stopped. Changes in subjective mood were not observed during the infusions, nor after the infusions had been stopped. Infusion of E or NE also had no significant effect on systolic blood pressure, plasma prolactin, growth hormone, cortisol, and triglycerides. Our results show that moderate cardiovascular and metabolic effects can be caused by sustained increases in circulating catecholamines.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)




HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1993 by the American Psychosomatic Society