Electrical pharyngeal stimulation increases substance P level in saliva

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Substance P, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Substance P (SP) is a neuropeptide known to enhance the swallow response.

It likely acts as a neurotransmitter in the pharyngeal mucosa in response to local stimuli.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 20 volunteers taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, both men and women.

In a randomized crossover study design, 20 healthy volunteers were treated with 10 min of real (0.2-ms pulses, 5 Hz, 280 V, stimulation intensity (mA) individually adjusted to tolerance level) or sham EPS on two separate sessions.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, crossover and pilot study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Substance P and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Each person switched between Substance P and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Substance P study would be practical.

Stimulation was delivered via a pair of bipolar ring electrodes mounted on an intraluminal catheter positioned in the pharynx.

Blood and saliva samples were taken prior to, during, and up to 1 h after EPS and analyzed for their SP concentration by ELISA.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Electric Stimulation, Pharynx, Pilot Projects, Saliva and Substance P.

The authors tagged it with the keywords electrical pharyngeal stimulation, neurogastroenterology, neurogenic dysphagia and swallowing.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, crossover and pilot study of Substance P in 20 volunteers.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 2 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (Neurogastroenterology and motility), a journal based in England.

More context: the Substance P compound page, all human trials.