The effect of β‐adrenoceptor blockade on human sweating

Abstract

1. Changes in cutaneous water loss were followed by continuously monitoring total body weight loss.2. Sweating was induced in normal subjects by raising the environmental temperature or by subjecting them to the emotional stress of mental arithmetic.3. Propranolol in a dosage of 0.15 mg/kg body weight intravenously had no significant effect on either thermal or emotional sweating, whereas thermal sweating was completely blocked temporarily by administration of atropine 2.4 mg intravenously.4. It is concluded that beta-adrenoceptor blockade has no effect on physiological sweating in normal people.