Question:
Has anyone ever had a systolic BP reading of 127 or higher, during a
panic attack?
What BP reading should warrant an ER visit?
I am 34 years old, and I have had many PA's over the last 15 years.
During the daytime, if I feel one coming on, I can usually work
through it. However, the majority of my PA's wake me up at night,
gasping for air, and causing elevated BP and heart palpitations (100 -
120 bpm).
I regularly monitor by BP at home and it is typically 140/90.
Over the last 15 years, I have been reluctant to take any HBP or SSRI
medication(s), until last month, when a doctors visit produced a BP of
168/105. I had the flu, and was running fever, but the doctor was
alarmed and prescribed me Toprol XL (50 Mg).
Answer:
Has anyone ever had a systolic BP reading of 127 or higher, during a
panic attack?
What BP reading should warrant an ER visit?
I am 34 years old, and I have had many PA's over the last 15 years.
During the daytime, if I feel one coming on, I can usually work
through it. However, the majority of my PA's wake me up at night,
gasping for air, and causing elevated BP and heart palpitations (100 -
120 bpm).
I regularly monitor by BP at home and it is typically 140/90.
Over the last 15 years, I have been reluctant to take any HBP or SSRI
medication(s), until last month, when a doctors visit produced a BP of
168/105. I had the flu, and was running fever, but the doctor was
alarmed and prescribed me Toprol XL (50 Mg).
I've been taking half doses (25 Mg) every day for the last 10 days.
During this time, my BP has been down - 125/80. Yesterday, however, I
was having a particularly stressful day at the office, and I took a
few BP readings that were all in the 140/90 range. I took another
half dose of Toprol, when I got home, and went to bed.
BAM!! 90 minutes later, I wake up in a huge PA. I took my BP and it
was 176/127!! Needless to say - I freaked out! I went to the ER.
There, my BP was 165/105. The doctor gave me 1 Mg of Xanax. And
again, I had never taken any meds like this, before. I didn't really
feel the Xanax make me any more relaxed than I would have on my own,
but it was midnight and I was already pretty tired.
176/127 really upset me. I usually try and calm myself down with the
knowledge that it's only a PA, and that it will pass in time, but I am
concerned that an EXTREMELY high BP (like 176/127) is going to damage
my heart or cause a stroke.
Is this BP reading, okay for short periods of time (20 - 30 min.)?
I can never remember what is good and bad blood pressure. I do know that
mine is moderately high, and I am only 18. I am pretty sure that mine is
caused by my anxiety, a few months ago when I was having horrible panic
attacks I felt my pulse and when I felt as relaxed as I could get it was at
about 130 bpm, and now it has gone down to being about 100 bpm. I haven't
had my blood pressure taken recently, I need to find a new physician, but
I'm sure it's gone down. However, there is also the hereditary side of it,
my father takes pills for his bp, he's had problems with it since he was in
his early 20's --and so far I tend to get all his bad genes, but then again
his weight also plays a factor in it, but with me, I'm not over weight,
so...again, I think my high bp and anxiety go hand in hand.
My BP goes up to around 240:180 when I get a panic attack. That was found
out by a 24-hrs.-BP-monitoring and they advised me to take a beta-blocker
and a tranquilizer as soon as such an attack starts as you can really die
of a heart attack or a stroke with such a high BP.
...I think when, where, and how a panic attack occurs can give insight
as to the triggers. While I'm no downplaying the psychological aspects
of anxiety/panic disorder there are defiantely some physiological
aspects of the the disorder that need to be dealt with and I
believe(personal opinion) that it makes dealing with the disorder
easier.
...Like the Meniere's disease I have, Anxiety/panic appears it could
have multiple triggers for the actual attacks (with menieres it's
vertigo attacks). What stood out to me, in your post, was the ones you
have at night. There's a good web site called PubMed and if you put in
key words like "panic" "CO2", you will see a lot of medical research
where they show that people with PD, are very sensitive to CO2
challenges. I also found the same thing with Meniere's and Asthma
which leads me to believe that a lot of the chronic illnesses are
linked some how.
...Since you have a lot of these attacks at night, I would highly
suggest asking your doctor for a sleep study. Sleep apnea, which I
also have, can drop your oxygen and raise your CO2 (carbon dioxide)
levels dramatically. I now have a CPAP machine and it's made a world
of difference in my health. It won't cure anything but it may help
stop the nighttime panic attacks. I've played with my wife's blood
pressure machine and I can drop my blood pressure by 20 points by deep
breathing (making sure my O2 levels are at their highest). So not only
are several mediacl disorders affected by an O2/CO2 imbalance, so is
the blood pressure. The body depends on sleep for so many things, it's
imperitive that we get a good night's sleep. And to be honest, I did
not know at the time that I wasn't getting a good night's sleep, but
once I started using the CPAP machine, I really could tell the
difference.
...I don't like medications either but you don't want to mess with
chronic Hypertension. I couldn't tell from your post if the docs
wanted you to take HBP meds all the time, but please follow their
directions on this. It may take a while to find the right med for you
and the right dosage, but the long term affects of Hypertension far
out weigh anything else. Another word of caution is to NEVER stop
taking HBP meds cold turkey, it can spike your blood pressure higher
than it was before. You have to taper off slowly.
...As far a SSRI's go, I think it's interesting that on the medical
studies I've read, they were pretty much a failure for the field that
they were develpoed for. The one study I'm refering to used a control
group of people who had a diagnoses of depression that had no
underlying cause. SSRI's had a positive efect on I think 20% but
don't hold me to that one but it was low. Where the doctors have found
the most success was with people who had chronic disorders. Not only
does it help when a person has secondary depression form a disorder
but it helps them with other symptoms of the disorder also even when
depression wasn't a factor. So SSRI's have found a palce in the
medical world that it wasn't even intended for but the sad thing is,
is that some people will not take them just because of the stereotype
that comes with the drugs. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's sad
not to take drugs because you don't like to take drugs, I'm saying
it's sad that a person would not take a drug because of the
stereotypes that accapany it. And fromthe research I've done they seem
to be a very safe drug for adults. They keep your levels of serotonin
high or possibly bring them up to normal and good sleep is essitial
for replinishing serotonin levels.
...The benzo's (xanax)seem to be a miricle drug for anxiety/panic
disorder and a few other chronic illneses also. I don't know how they
work but I've seen a world of differencr in my wife because of them.
There's a whole culture out there that's against them and they can be
addictive, but I can tell you that my wife doesn't care and niether
would I if I was in the same situation, but that's a personal decision
you'll have to make. I do know that in my wife's case it is Dosage
Dependant. A half mg of ativan can make all the differance in the
world. It helps her handle the stressful situations really well.
...She's found that she has her most problems just before and right
after her cycle, so we're Looking down that road. An interesting thing
happened with this last panic attack she had early this week. She
basically got over the panic attack but she still didn't feel right.
Here's her quote, " I know I'm not dying, I know it's not a heart
attack or a stroke, but I still don't feel "right". I know exactly
what she means by that because I had the same feeling a few years back
with my Meniere's. I couldn't explain it, I looked ok, I wasn't dizzy,
I wasn't spinning out, but I could tell there was something wrong, I
just didn't feel right. This went on from tuesday until last night and
I finally convinced her to take another .5mgs of her Ativan to see if
it would help. Within an hour she was smiling and talking and she
didn't realize what had happened and I ask her if she felt ok now and
she stopped and thought a minute and said that she felt normal again
and that the numbnes was gone. I know we're not supposed to change the
dosages that our docsprescribe and this is the only drug that I would
even think about doing it. Her standard dose is 3 mg /day and from my
reading about this, going to 3.5 isn't that big of a deal and I
wouldn't have let her gone past that. But it illustrates how some of
these drugs can help and there may be a big down side on the long term
effects, but at the dosages that's shes at now, I'm not too concerned.
And shes going to make a DR's appoinment for next week so we can go
and talk to him about this last episode.
...I've noticed that there are those that take the SSRI's and the
benzo's and seem to be handling things well and this will be one of
the topics we discusswith him also.
...As far as short term Hypertention goes, that's a question for your
doc. Our BP will fluctuate with different activities throughout the
day but there's going to be a limit to how high it should go and he'll
have those answers.
...I'm not advocating drugs even though it may sound as if I am, but
just letting you know the effect they had on my wife and her
hypertension and PD.
