More questions

[Helencollins]

I am taking 80mg slow release propranolol. I take my tablet at 7am.

It keeps my heart rate nice and calm between 60-70bpm normally.

I have been waking up at 7 feeling panicky and like my heart is racing and sure enough when I check it, it's between 80 and 90.

Is this the tablet having worn off do you think?

Also another question about how long these take to kick in, as I was told 5 hours, but I feel calmer and my heart rate feels lower after even an hour in the morning? Any clarification on how long slow release 80mg half beta prograne take to start working each day?

Really grateful for any answers

[Danielle_S]

Hello Helen,

I'm taking exactly the same capsules, I have to say though since about a week in I haven't had any panic attacks on them at all. I still get the feeling of getting hot and clammy but because my heart rate isn't increasing I can talk myself out of a total attack. I take one around 10/11am and it seems to last me throughout the day and get to work pretty much immediately. I'm sleeping better at night but finding I need more sleep to feel rested. I'm currently unemployed (due to travel anxiety) so it could just be that I can lay in a bit later. I would say go back to doctor's if you're still getting the panicky feeling (there is apparently quite a nasty withdrawal with propranolol).

D.

[Svojski85]

I am taking 80mg slow release propranolol. I take my tablet at 7am.

It keeps my heart rate nice and calm between 60-70bpm normally.

I have been waking up at 7 feeling panicky and like my heart is racing and sure enough when I check it, it's between 80 and 90.

Is this the tablet having worn off do you think?

Also another question about how long these take to kick in, as I was told 5 hours, but I feel calmer and my heart rate feels lower after even an hour in the morning? Any clarification on how long slow release 80mg half beta prograne take to start working each day?

Really grateful for any answers

According to a publicly-available medical study on physiological equivalence of Bedranol R from 1987 (i.e. on this formulation of long-acting propranolol which entered the UK drug market in around 1987), it had a working half-life of 8-11 hours only with a delayed onset of action by 5-6hrs, hence you could start feeling that it would be wearing off by 8-10pm if taken at 7am, creating thereby a noticeable gap from 8-10pm onwards into the morning period (one other factor to count in this "calculation" is the so-called Bell curve representing the function of bodily weight in regards to the desired drug effect, where it applies 'the more body weight, the slightly higher dosage may be appropriate in the treatment', and the other way round, 'the smaller body weight, the less dosage might be appropriate in treatment', but this does not necessarily affect the duration). The national regulator MHRA provided this study earlier in 2014, and it didnt' provide anything specifically in relation to Bedranol SR, so one may only wonder if Bedranol R and Bedranol SR are the same products nowadays, the former of which getting perhaps later renamed to represent the known 'Sustained-Release' property in its name. As far any practical arrangements, I would discuss with your GP if taking it twice daily would be available to you.

The patient information leafleat (aka leaflet) states half-life of 10-20 hours... I asked the national regulator (MHRA) for an explanation why it differs so much in the original expert study and in the patient leaflet, and they replied stating that 'we have streamlined the products information with the market leader (INDERAL LA, discontinued in Jan 2014, which the 1987 study estasblished as having a working half-life of 13-16hrs, with a delayed onset of action of 4-5hrs).... I am inviting you to have your own opinions on how the MHRA may be working perhaps a bit too "closely" with certain pharmaceutical corporations, allowing themselves to "streamline" rather important drug properties, on which all UK doctors then rely consciously in their practices...

Leaflet link: https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/21729 (Bedranol SR)
Leflet link 2: http://www.mhra.gov.uk/spc-pil/index...#retainDisplay (Beta Progane)

If you wish to know more about drug properties (incl. alleged half-lives, onsets of action) you can visit MHRA website here: http://www.mhra.gov.uk/spc-pil/index.htm (enter the name of your medicine on the left)
For true understanding of real half-lifes based on expert witness testimony, you need to file a request under section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, stating that you need a 'bio-equivalence study underlying the market authorization of your drug XY' and you are supposed to get to the bottom of it, eventually!