New to propranolol

[BLONDE PANIC]

Hello I was wondering if anyone can help me? I suffer bad panic attacks and have done for years, I'm on citalopram 30 mg and get bad palpitations at times. My doctor has just given me propranolol 80mg and I'm now scared of taking them because he said that asthma was on my records that's why he hasent given them to me before! I had a chest infection around 10 years ago and I was given an inhaler so that's why it said asthma! Even though I haven't got it it's still worrying me that if I take them it will affect me because I get a lot of air hunger due to my panic and keep telling myself they will make it worse please help

[dally]

Hi
I was given propanlol 10-40mg to take as required.
I was not previously asthmatic but soon developed a continuous cough after taking it.
I was not wheezy
The cough went on for weeks which I did not connect to propanlol.
Eventually I saw my dr about the cough. He said it was asthma. Told me to stop the propanalol.
Cough disappeared.

I would try a 10mg dose. And see if it affects your breathing

It helped reduce my anxiety

[Mermaid16]

Hi! I have also just been prescribed this, but haven't taken it as yet (mainly because I'm on 10 billion other medications, and will try and ride out the panic first and if it gets too bad, then I will try when necessary. I was prescribed only 10mg Morning and night which is a tiny dose. If you are worried, maybe you could try the lower dose and see if it has any effects. Also try it in the morning maybe. There are lots of threads I have read on here where people only take it as needed. I asked the psych about this, but he said no, to take it every day. Hope this helps a little.

---------- Post added at 06:50 ---------- Previous post was at 06:46 ----------

Hi
I was given propanlol 10-40mg to take as required.
I was not previously asthmatic but soon developed a continuous cough after taking it.
I was not wheezy
The cough went on for weeks which I did not connect to propanlol.
Eventually I saw my dr about the cough. He said it was asthma. Told me to stop the propanalol.
Cough disappeared.

I would try a 10mg dose. And see if it affects your breathing

It helped reduce my anxiety

Hi Dally! Thank you for all your advise. It is very much appreciated. Would you say that propanlol reduces only the physical symptoms of panic attack, ie the racing heart or does it help overall with anxiety in general (hope that makes sense). I have been prescribed it for panic attacks, but after you comment above was wondering if the psych prescribed it for overall anxiety as well. Panic and anxiety are quite a bit different kind of. Thanks in advance Dally. You're a gem and I'm grateful for the knowledge you share. It has certainly helped me.

[BLONDE PANIC]

Thank you for the reply xx do you think 80 mg is to high a dose to start on ? Or is anyone on 80 mg to start and is ok with it? Xxx

[Mermaid16]

Hi! I'm not really sure to be honest. Your best bet would be to go back through older posts and see what they say and maybe message the people that take it or phone the pharmacy and ask their opinion maybe. I am on lots of medication, which is why I was only prescribed such a low dose I think. You could also maybe contact your gp and see if you can start lower and build up. I guess if you take a low dose and it does nothing, then you can increase it the next time and just judge how you feel and if you think it needs increasing. I can't imagine it would hurt starting lower, it probably just wouldn't do as much as the higher dose.

[dally]

Hi
If the 80 mg is the slow release then it's not a high dose, but is designed to be in your system for the whole 24 hrs.

If you are worried about it causing asthma, try a 10mg dose.
Discuss this with your GP.

It helped my anxiety because it reduces adrenaline and for me stopped the physical panic spiralling which stopped my anxiety thoughts.
My GP told me 40 mg x 3 times a day was the effective dose for anxiety.

I worry about taking ANY meds, so I only took 10mg if I was anxious and 20mg if I was going somewhere (agoraphobic)
The, I don't think the 10 mg was effective, but, for me the 20 mg did help.

[BLONDE PANIC]

Ok thank you so much for your reply xxx

[Scaredlady]

I started Propranolol on Wednesday and I was seriously relaxed the first night (I couldn't sleep but that was a side effect of another medication I had started). Anything could have happened and it wouldn't have bothered me because that was how relaxed I was....

But since then I feel as if I am feeling no effect from the Propranolol, it has not relaxed me one bit and I do not feel like it has alleviated any of the physical symptoms of anxiety that I get.

I'm on 80mg slow release; I spoke to a pharmacist yesterday and she had great things to say about Propranolol but for whatever reason I don't think it's doing much for me.

Anyway, I hope you've managed to take it and it has helped you.

[TheChangingMan]

I have taken Propanolol for almost 10 years, 27 Y/o Male

I find that Propanolol does effect breathing, and the speed of how you intake a breath (i.e inhale/exhale)

Personally, Im wondering myself how the effects of propanolol have long term, but from what research i have done so far it seems Propanolol works wonders for palpitational anxiety, i myself have not suffered a raging heartbeat in a good while (apart from exersize)

I wish you all the success in the world on overcoming this, and im always a message away

TCM x