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Pharmacology · Chapter 13

The Vomiting Pathway

Nausea and vomiting are a reflex: four separate triggers feed one vomiting center in the medulla, and each trigger speaks through different receptors. That is the whole secret of antiemetics — you don't sedate the whole brain, you block the receptor of the trigger that is driving this patient. Tap a trigger to see its receptors and the drug class that blocks it.

The emetic reflex

Tap a trigger box — or a name at right
Four triggers, one centertap a trigger to begin