Antispasmodic

antispasmodic [¦an·tē‚spaz′mäd·ik]

(pharmacology)

An agent, such as benzyl benzoate, that relieves convulsions and the pain of muscular spasms.

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Antispasmodic 

one of a group of pharmacological substances with various chemical structures that induce the relaxation of the smooth muscles of, for example, the blood vessels, bronchi, and gastrointestinal, biliary, and urinary tracts.

Antispasmodics may be, according to their mechanism of action, neurotropic or musculotropic. Neurotropic agents include cholinolytics, for example, such m-cholinolytics as atropine, spasmolytin, thiphen, aprophen, and diprophen. Conventionally, they also include sympathomimetics (Adrenalin, ephedrine, Is-adrine [Aleudrin]), which relax the smooth muscles of the bronchi, intestines, and other organs by exciting sympathetic nerves. Musculotropic antispasmodics, including papaverine and drotav-erinum, directly act on the smooth muscles.

Antispasmodics are used to treat many diseases accompanied by the intensified contraction of the smooth muscles, including asthma, renal colic, and spasms of the cerebral blood vessels.

REFERENCES

Kuznetsov, S. G., and S. N. Golikov. Sinteticheskie alropinopodobnye veshchestva. Leningrad, 1962. (Bibliography.)
Wesselius de Casparis, A. “Neurotropic Versus Musculotropic Antispasmodics.” Medicamundi, 1962, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 92–98. (Bibliography.)

V. V. ZAKUSOV