[Depression by morphine of various descending inhibitory controls modulating the transmission of nociceptive information at the spinal level in the rat]

Abstract

Recording from convergent neurones--i. e. those responding to both non-noxious and noxious cutaneous stimuli--in the dorsal horn of the intact anaesthetized Rat, two distinct effects are seen after application of noxious stimuli: there is an activation of units of the segmental pool, along with a very powerful inhibition of the remaining neuronal population (diffuse noxious inhibitory controls, DNIC). Morphine at doses inadequate to directly depress the activity of these units specifically blocks the inhibition. Since DNIC is dependent upon supraspinal mechanisms, these observations show that morphine is capable of depressing certain descending inhibitory controls, at least when these are induced by noxious peripheral stimuli.