PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - James P. Zacny
AU  - Joanna L. Hill
AU  - Matthew L. Black
AU  - Parvine Sadeghi
TI  - Comparing the Subjective, Psychomotor and Physiological Effects of Intravenous Pentazocine and Morphine in Normal Volunteers
DP  - 1998 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
PG  - 1197--1207
VI  - 286
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/286/3/1197.short
4100  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/286/3/1197.full
SO  - J Pharmacol Exp Ther1998 Sep 01; 286
AB  - The purposes of this study were to characterize the subjective, psychomotor and physiological effects of pentazocine in non–drug-abusing volunteers and to compare and contrast the effects of pentazocine with those of morphine. Sixteen subjects without histories of opiate dependence were injected in an upper extremity vein with 0, 7.5, 15 or 30 mg/70 kg pentazocine or 10 mg/70 kg morphine, using a randomized, double-blind, crossover design. Pentazocine increased scores on the pentobarbital-chlorpromazine-alcohol group and lysergic acid diethylamide scales and decreased scores on the benzedrine group scale of the Addiction Research Center Inventory, increased adjective checklist ratings of “nodding,” “sweating” and “turning of stomach” and increased visual analog scale ratings of “difficulty concentrating,” “drunk” and “having unpleasant bodily sensations.” Pentazocine (30 mg) had a greater propensity to increase ratings associated with dysphoria than did 10 mg of morphine. Pentazocine produced impairment on four measures of psychomotor performance. Ten milligrams of morphine produced minimal psychomotor impairment. Both pentazocine and morphine induced miosis, but 10 mg of morphine had a greater magnitude of effect than 30 mg of pentazocine. The results of the present study demonstrate that 7.5 to 30 mg of pentazocine had orderly, dose-related effects on subjective, psychomotor and physiological variables. Further, a clinically relevant dose of pentazocine, 30 mg, produced a greater magnitude of dysphoric subjective effects than did 10 mg of morphine, which is consistent with the literature reporting that pentazocine has a greater likelihood of inducing psychotomimesis than do other opioids. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics