Vagal changes following cancer chemotherapy: Implications for the development of nausea

• Published in: Psychophysiology 2000-05, Vol.37 (3), p.378-384
• Main Authors: MORROW, GARY R., ANDREWS, PAUL L.R., HICKOK, JANE T., STERN, ROBERT
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Antineoplastic Agents - adverse effects; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Autonomic nervous system; Biological and medical sciences; Cancer; Chemotherapy; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heart rate variability; Humans; Middle Aged; Nausea; Nausea - chemically induced; Nausea - physiopathology; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - physiopathology; Parasympathetic nervous system; Parasympathetic Nervous System - drug effects; Peripheral nervous system. Autonomic nervous system. Neuromuscular transmission. Ganglionic transmission. Electric organ; Vagus Nerve - drug effects; Vagus Nerve - physiopathology; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
• ISSN: 0048-5772; 1540-5958; 1469-8986
• DOI: 10.1111/1469-8986.3730378

Many physiological changes that occur contemporaneously with nausea are mediated by the autonomic nervous system, but the specific autonomic changes associated with nausea have not been characterized. Cardiac parasympathetic (vagal) activity as indicated by heart rate variability, measured as the standard deviation of successive differences (SDSD) in beat-to-beat intervals, was assessed in 24 women with ovarian cancer immediately prior to and accompanying nausea that occurred following anticancer chemotherapy. A progressive increase in SDSD followed infusion of the chemotherapy agent, indicating a rise in cardiac parasympathetic (vagal) activity, with onset of nausea consistently occurring after the peak activity had been reached, at a time when SDSD was decreasing. An increase in parasympathetic activity seems to set the stage for the expression of nausea but an additional stimulus is apparently needed to finally trigger the event.