Beta blockers are a class of drugs used in the treatment of various cardiovascular diseases, which reduce the heart rate, heart workload, and cardiac blood flow, which helps lower blood pressure. They are a common treatment for cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, arrhythmias, chest pain and high blood pressure. Numerous studies have suggested that beta blockers can cause negative psychological side effects, including depression, anxiety, drowsiness, insomnia, hallucinations, and nightmares. This study suggests that these effects may not be due to the drugs.
–
What possible side effects of beta blockers on mental health?
“These side effects have been the subject of discussion in the scientific community for many decades”, recalls the lead author, Dr Reinhold Kreutz, professor at the Berlin Institute of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology: “Our results showing that beta blockers are not the cause of these negative side effects”.
Beta blockers and mental health: the study is indeed the first of its kind to examine the full spectrum of side effects of beta blockers on mental health. The researchers analyzed data from more than 50,000 people who participated in 258 studies including double-blind randomized controlled trials: nearly 70% of the studies were clinical trials focused on the treatment of high blood pressure and 31 assessed depression in placebo-controlled trials. The meta-analysis reveals that:
- although this is the most frequently reported mental health side effect, depression does not occur more frequently during beta blocker therapy than with placebo;
- the rate of discontinuation of treatment for depression is no different for patients taking β-blockers vs. other treatments;
- nightmares, insomnia and sleep disturbances, on the other hand, may be linked to beta blockers;
- the most commonly reported side effect of discontinuing β-blocker therapy is fatigue.
The analysis thus concludes that the risk of depression should not affect the decision to initiate treatment with a beta-blocker.
“Beta blockers are generally safe for mental health”,
write the researchers in their press release: “Our analysis does not identify any indication of an association between beta blocker use and depression. The same is true for most other mental health symptoms. Only sleep-related symptoms may develop during beta blocker therapy in some patients ”.
Finally, while patients with a history of cardiovascular events such as a heart attack or stroke are more likely to develop psychological complications, these symptoms do not appear to be causally related to beta blockers. However, these patients must be monitored.
One limit, however, to these conclusions: only double-blind randomized trials were included in the analysis and most of them were conducted more than 20 years ago.
–
