Inderal (Propranolol), what is it for?

They put my daughter on Inderal along with her Abilify. She has bipolar.

What is Inderal actually for in relation to mental illness?

I was given it to take as needed for tremors.

Looks like a blood pressure med for hypertension and heart conditions. Also tremors. Used off label for anxiety. Seems to me I have heard it is more common now for anxiety.

Are those the only two meds?
No mood stabilizer?
No antidepressant?
Does the abilify cause tremors?
It would be odd to only prescribe abilify for bipolar.
Call the doc and ask. Or is she over 18 and you can't?

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I've not heard of it being used to treat mental illness, but it's been years since I have had anything to do with medications. If I was to hazard a guess I'd say perhaps it is to counteract side effects of her other medication, though I could be totally wrong. Does your daughter have any known heart issues?

When I was a young kid I was put on Inderal for heart issues, and it gave me wicked night terrors. If your daughter has been put on it very recently, depending on how old she is that may be something you'll run into with her.

She had been taking Zoloft for the depression but was having side effects. the pdoc told her to stop the Zoloft and take the Inderal. Pdoc wants my daughter to come back in 2 weeks. Perhaps that is just until she gets off the Zoloft then she will put her on another med for depression? I don't know.
It makes no sense to me. She is an adult so she went to the doc on her own. She doesn't always understand what she's being told. I'm going to try to go with her next time.

Good for you. We all need to self advocate and often need someone to advocate for is.

Is she bipolar 1 or 2?

Abilify is often used as an augmenter to an antidepressant for depression.
It is an atypical anti psychotic and if she had psychosis in manic episodes or psychosis in deep depression it could be for that.

I suspect the abilify is being used for an augmenter for depression and he would put her on another anti depressant. Usually they give you a new one to take at the same time you stop the old one.

The only think I can think is that she is bi polar 2 and the inderal is for anxiety. Probably the mania part isn't bad or she would also be on a mood stabilizer like Lamactil.

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Adding one medication at a time, or making one major medication change at a time, basically, is the sign of a good psychiatrist.

Inderal [propranolol] is a basic medication with a pretty low side effect profile.

Abilify can sometimes be activating and/or have some anxiety effects.
Propranolol can help with tremors but also with anxiety that has physical manifestations.

You don't want to take a person off zoloft and add abilify and propranolol at the same time- then you have no idea if anything is helping or not or what might be helping or causing bad effects. Keeping it simple is the best way to figure out if something is actually helping. Depending on the specific side effects the Zoloft was causing he may want to see what will pan out over the next couple of weeks.

Abilify can also serve to augment SSRIs and aid in treatment of depression in conjunction with them.

Though introducing a moodstabilizer is typical, not everyone will actually need one, particularly with treatment of bipolar II. Particularly if hypo/manias tend to be more dysphoric, one is being treated for symptoms of anxiety, and on an AP [abilify is one that covers some strange symptoms so may in fact cover a lot of ground in a situation like this].

Let us remember that though there are specifiers of BP I, BP II and BPNOS [Not Otherwise Specified], we all kind of have our specific needs and individual details that need tending to.

OP- It can take time to do medication changes. Maybe ask if you can go with her and go into the end of the appointment to get a quick summary of changes and why they are happening. Then she can get some privacy but you can all be on the same page as far as what is going on with meds?

When I was on abilify, I was later placed on propranolol because of the akathesia that abilify gave me. I found later that propranolol made me sluggish and tired and even kind of depressed so I switched anti-psychotics to invega and went completely off the abilify and propranolol.

I'd say most often for physical symptoms of anxiety, but it also can counteract side effects of other meds as well, so that's a possibility too.

I take propranolol for anxiety. It stops the physical symptoms, but not the mental symptoms. If I start to have a panic attack it prevents my heart from racing, etc.

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