Interactions between analgesics and calcium channel blockers.

1. The findings, derived from different experimental models, examined in this review, provide evidence that the calcium channel blockers and related drugs possess analgesic effects. 2. The antinociceptive action that some analgesic drugs exhibit may be related to calcium channel blockade. 3. Evidence from a variety of biochemical and pharmacological experimental approaches, support the existence of an interelation between the calcium modulators and the opioid drugs. 4. This idea agrees with the novel neuropharmacological hypothesis that a common very high affinity binding site for multiple neurotransmitters could exist, as has been proposed by Pasternak and Wood (1986). 5. This hypothesis could be extended to the neuromodulators or other neuromediators.