Increased levels of substance P in patients taking beta-blockers are linked with a protective effect on oropharyngeal dysphagia

What Was Tested

This observational study looks at Substance P.

The aim of this study was to analyze serum and saliva SP levels in patients taking beta-blockers (TBB), and to explore its relationship with OD.

Why It Was Studied

The researchers have recently found a potential protective effect of beta-blockers on oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD).

The action mechanism by which beta-blockers could wield this protective effect is unknown, but the neurotransmitter substance P (SP) could play a key role.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Adult (>50 year) patients TBB were randomly recruited from the primary care setting and 1:1 matched by age, sex, and Barthel Index (BI) with patients not taking beta-blockers (NTBB).

Dysphagia was evaluated in all patients using the clinical volume-viscosity swallow test (V-VST).

How the Study Was Run

Serum and saliva samples were taken and analyzed for their SP levels using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Socio-demographic and clinical variables were collected.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adrenergic beta-Antagonists, Case-Control Studies, Deglutition Disorders and Substance P.

Author keywords: beta-blockers, motility and oropharyngeal dysphagia.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is an observational study of Substance P.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2018 (Neurogastroenterology and motility), a journal based in England.

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