PTSD and high blood presure medications?

[Steely]

I am posting this here, because I am not sure where else to post it. Mods, feel free to move if necessary.

Just a question -- Matt is still suffering from a lot of PTSD fight or flight symptoms, as well as anxiety related issues. He cannot take SSRIs or Benzos, at all. I have read that some high blood pressure medications can help this condition. For instance Prozasin has just been documented to help the nightmares related to PTSD, but his psychiatrist says it will just help sleep?? He has tried Metropopol, but that seemed to not do anything.

Does anyone else have experience with this, or know what might work? I think the goal is to lower the adrenal glands response to stress -- which will tone down the flight or fight mode. This sounds like what Prozasin does -- but I am confused as to why this would only work at night?

 

[TeDo]

difficult child 1 is on the blood pressure medication Tenex and it seems to really be helping with the anxiety. Not sure if that's what you are asking for (difficult child 1 does not have PTSD but does have extreme fight/flight reactions).

 

[buddy]

Q is on clonidine....he actually did get a diagnosis of ptsd when very little, he would duck every time someone moved fast and it was thought to be more than just his delays...they wondered about his being spanked in foster care. She really was a good woman but seemed she thought that was an ok thing to do and admitted it.

Not sure that was the full story though, with his reaction.

Anyway like TeDo's kiddo, our big issue is the fight/flight with his anxiety. The Clonidine is the main thing that has turned things around for him.

So, that is our story, I hope it works for him too...

 

[flutterby]

I know they use propranalol for anxiety, but it is very similar to metroprolol, so if that one didn't work I wouldn't hold much hope for propranalol.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Alternate take on this... if Prozasin primarily affects sleep... maybe it is still worth a try.
Too often, people who get "enough" hours of sleep, are not considered for sleep disorders.
But... if the quality of sleep is missing, the result on day-time survival is huge.
It might be worth a try even if it isn't known to directly impact PTSD, because sleep issues indirectly DO impact all other problems.

 

[Steely]

Insane that is what Matt and I were discussing tonight. His psychiatrist is willing to trial it, and so is he, so I guess it is worth it. I was just hoping there would be something that was more widely used for this problem. He did really well on clonidine for awhile, and then it become ineffective....maybe that is also worth a trial again.