Studies Reveal Beta Blockers That Are Less likely to Cause Depression

According to a new study, beta-blockers (drugs that lower blood pressure) treat a variety of cardiovascular diseases and are less likely to cause depression than other similar treatments.

The study was published today in the journal of the American Heart Association, Hypertension. Depression can occur during beta-blocker therapy, but studies suggest that beta-blockers are unlikely to be the cause.

Beta blockers are a type of drug that reduces heart rate, heart strain, heart blood output, and lowers blood pressure. These are common treatments for cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, arrhythmias, chest pain, and high blood pressure. Researchers suspect beta-blockers that have negative psychological side effects such as depression, anxiety, drowsiness, insomnia, hallucinations, and nightmares.

“The potential mental health side effects of beta-blockers have been debated in the scientific community for decades,” said Rhein, a professor at the Berlin Institute of Health, Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology. Dr. Hold Kreuz, MD, said. Research oversight and corresponding authors. “Therefore, our results showing that beta-blockers are not the cause of many of these negative side effects are very important.”

This study is the first of its kind to investigate the full range of mental health side effects associated with beta-blockers. The researchers analyzed data from more than 50,000 individuals from 258 studies, including beta-blockers, in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Almost 70% of the studies were clinical trials focused on treating hypertension, and 31 evaluated depression in a placebo-controlled trial.

The results of a comprehensive analysis revealed that:

-Depression did not occur more often during beta-blocker treatment compared to placebo treatment, despite the most frequently reported mental health side effects.

-The rate of drug discontinuation due to depression was not different between those taking beta-blockers and those taking other treatments.

-Abnormal dreams, insomnia, and sleep disorders may be associated with beta-blockers.

-Of the mental health events analyzed, the most common reason to discontinue beta-blockers was fatigue / fatigue.

“Our results show that mental health adverse events, especially concerns about depression, should not influence beta-blocker decisions. Beta-blockers are almost safe for psychological health.” Kreutz said. “We found no signs of an association between beta-blocker use and depression. The same was true for most other mental health symptoms, as reported in the studies included in the analysis. However, sleep-related symptoms such as abnormalities Dreams and insomnia appeared during beta-blocker therapy in some patients. “

“Patients with a history of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke were more likely to develop psychological complications. Beta blockers were found to be unrelated, but these patients Should be monitored. “

The original study did not include individual patient data, so this analysis could not investigate whether sleep-related symptoms in people taking beta-blockers persisted. Additional research is needed to address this question.

Researchers report that there are important restrictions to consider when interpreting the results of the analysis. Most beta-blocker trials were conducted over 20 years ago, before a unified language was established to describe adverse events. In addition, the authors considered only a randomized, double-blind study for analysis. This ruled out some studies that may provide more data on long-term beta-blocker treatment.

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