If you’re taking medication for blood pressure, you might already have an opportunity to improve your mental health without adding another pill to your routine.
At The Neuro Well, we look at brain care a little differently. We pay attention to how medications affect both your body and your mind.
We call this Neuro Mental Health; treating the whole person, not just isolated symptoms.
The Three Categories: Neutral, Negative, and Positive
Not all blood pressure medications are the same when it comes to mental health. Understanding these differences can help you have better conversations with your provider.
Neutral Blood Pressure Medications
Most modern blood pressure medications fall into this category:
- ACE inhibitors, ARBs, and calcium channel blockers typically don’t have much impact on mood, anxiety, or how clearly you think.
- They do their job for your heart and leave your mental wellness alone.
- If your blood pressure is controlled and your mental health feels stable, these medications are doing what they should.
Blood Pressure Medications That Can Impact Mental Health Negatively
There are older blood pressure medications that may result in fatigue, low mood, or that foggy feeling where you can not think straight:
- In certain individuals, beta-blockers have been associated with these effects but all individuals react differently.
- In case you have observed some alterations in your energy levels, motivation, or mental clarity when taking a blood pressure drug, discuss it with your provider.
- A mere change is sometimes all that is needed.
Blood Pressure Medications That Support Mental Health
This is where things get interesting. Some blood pressure medications can actually help with specific mental health issues.
Propranolol for Performance and Social Anxiety
Propranolol is a beta-blocker which is effective in performance anxiety and social anxiety:
- It blocks the physical symptoms of anxiety like a racing heart, shaky hands, quavering voice, and other things that might contribute to the worsening of anxiety.
- It is commonly used by musicians, people who have social anxiety, and public speakers who need to remain calm and focused at the most.
- It doesn’t sedate you or cloud your thinking. It just quiets the physical response so your mind can work clearly.
Even if you don’t have high blood pressure, sometimes this type of medicine is the best option for mental health.
For example, certain blood pressure meds can target both anxiety and brain fog and even stress at the same time.
If someone does well on this, that means they don’t need a psychiatric option; they may be able to use the meds in combination with therapy to get through a stressful time.
Guanfacine for Sleep, Hyperactivity, and Obsessive Symptoms
It controls or relieves racing thoughts, sleep disturbances, hyperactivity, and obsessive symptoms in individuals because:
- It acts on receptors in the prefrontal cortex that are involved in modulating attention and impulse control.
- Many people will notice that their mind feels calmer, and they sleep well.
- It’s particularly helpful for people with ADHD who also deal with anxiety or insomnia.
Anyone taking stimulant medications should also consider taking one of these options as an adjuvant treatment to stimulants because blood pressure meds counteract any negative heart health side effects from taking long-term stimulants.
This makes them especially useful for ADHD treatment, as they can help balance out cardiovascular strain while supporting calm focus and improved sleep.
Migraine Prevention
Several blood pressure medications work really well for preventing migraines:
- Propranolol, some calcium channel blockers, and other options can cut down on how often migraines happen and how bad they are
- If you’re dealing with both high blood pressure and migraines, the right medication can help with both at once
Why This Matters: Fewer Pills, Better Care
This is the most important when you are already taking blood pressure medication.
Assuming that you need blood pressure assistance, as well as mental health, you may be able to manage both conditions with a single medication, rather than two.
Rather than including something new in response to anxiety, sleep, or migraines, you may simply need to change to a different blood pressure drug.
Doing this:
- Means fewer pills to keep track of.
- Makes your routine simpler.
- Lowers the chance of medications interacting badly.
- Saves you money.
It’s just smarter care.
The Neuro Mental Health Approach
At The Neuro Well, we don’t treat your blood pressure and mental health like they’re two separate problems. Your brain and body work together, so we look at them that way.
When we’re prescribing or adjusting medications, we think about:
- What’s this going to do to your cardiac health?
- What’s it going to do to your mood, to your energy, your ability to concentrate?
- Will it actually help with something else you’re dealing with?
- How does it fit with everything else you’re taking and how you live your life?
That’s what happens when you integrate neurology, psychiatry, and psychology in one visit with one provider. We notice things that get missed when care is split up between different doctors.
What to Do Next
See us whether you are taking blood pressure and experiencing anxiety, sleeping problems, obsession, hyperactivity or migraine.
We will discuss what you are taking and determine whether a change of medication would have a beneficial effect on your health and your mood.
We can guide you to make the right strategic choice in the beginning, in case you have only recently begun the treatment of blood pressure, anxiety, or anything alike.
Why take two medications when one could do the job?
This is brain care that actually makes sense. It’s efficient, evidence-based, and built around real life.
The future of brain care is already here, and at The Neuro Well, you can access it today
