Thyrotropin releasing hormone improves blood pressure and survival in endotoxic shock.

In conscious rats subjected to endotoxic shock, thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) is shown to produce a rapid increase in cardiovascular variables and respiratory rates at intravenous doses between 0.20 and 6.34 mg/kg. Moreover, these doses of TRH significantly improve survival following endotoxemia. The absence of an effect of TRH upon analgesic latencies, combined with its demonstrated efficacy in reversing shock, suggest that it may have therapeutic advantage over the opiate antagonist naloxone.