Hi everyone. I have been prescribed propranolol for high pulse and anxiety. 40mg 3 times a day. Is anyone else taking these and do you have any side effects? Says sleep disturbances and I don’t need any more of those 🙈 have they helped anyone’s anxiety?
Thank you
Hi Jo, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? What I mean is that a tachycardia (fast pulse rate) will make anyone feel anxious. Equally, if you suffer from anxiety your heart rate can increase.
In 2014 I was diagnosed with POTs syndrome and eventually Lupus. It seems that Lupus attacked my autonomic nervous system which caused my heart rate to be unstable.
Initially I was put on propanolol but this is a short acting beta-blocker so will slow your heart rate down but wear off relatively quickly which is probably why you have be given it 3 times a day. It didn't really work for me and my heart rate was still too fast so I was switch to bisoprolol 1.25mg once a day. Bisoprolol is a longer acting beta blocker and slows the heart rate over a period of about 12 hours. This suits me much better. Occasionally I have to take an extra bisoprolol every now and then when my heart rate is too fast but this is generally when I've got an infection (when don't I) or am premenstrual.
I do know of many people who take propanolol for headaches and anxiety and seem to do well on it. I did know one girl whos hair thinned a bit on it but thats because her prolactin hormone dropped as a result of being on it. She switched to another medication and she has a thick head of hair now.
Good luck with it. Everyone is different. But do they know why you get such a fast heart rate? Its very easy to put these things down to anxiety but Lupus messes around with your nervous system and IST (inappropriate sinus tachycardia) and POTs syndrome can be secondary to Lupus, half my family have it so its important to know the cause before treating the symptoms and it is often easily missed.
Propanolol wasn't right for me but it may well be very effective for you. If not there are alternatives out there.
Best of luck and let us know how you get on x
Thank you so much for your reply. Really helpful. Xx
One thing I would say was that after starting beta-blockers I had an upset stomach for about 2-3 days, felt very low and a bit confused but this all resolved within days. However, as you know those are all symptoms of a lupus flare so I'm not sure what to attribute them to. I did feel better for having a slower heart rate though for sure!
I was put on the lowest dose and, once I had tolerated it okay I was then give the slow release form at 80mg. This was for tremors - maybe thought to be anxiety related - but this wasn’t spelt out if so.
What I find about the slow release is that it does help a bit. But, as happytulip describes, I do tend to feel a bit flat and extra sluggish the next day. I also take Losartan daily for hypertension and so I think the hypertensive qualities in both combined are a bit much for me. So I only take propranolol when my tremors are extra bad and GP said this was fine. Chicken or egg is a good point too. In my case I don’t have PoTS but my Sjögren’s fatigue is very severe and I suspect this causes my tremors.
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