This could be a good new option for those with ADHD who are currently on meds for it.
This is really interesting. As I was reading the article I was wondering how they were going to wring money out of it, as amlodipine is off patent. Then I got to this part:
“While amlodipine shows promise in preclinical models, it is not currently suitable for use in ADHD in its marketed form,” Karlsson noted. “Further optimization through chemical modification is necessary to enhance CNS selectivity and ensure a favorable therapeutic index in the context of ADHD.”
Classic big pharma. Slightly tweak an existing drug in an insignificant way so that you can get a new patent on it and charge exorbitant prices.
There’s no reason to believe those changes aren’t needed to work more effectively though, especially if it’s trying to be classified as an ADHD medication. Changing one molecule really can fundamentally change a drug, if it’s the right molecule changed the right way, it’s not inherently a cash grab, there’s not enough info here about the chemistry and its applications to make that call
This is correct. Amlodipine is very effective as a blood pressure medication, but it doesn’t get through the blood-brain barrier which is one of the biggest hurdles for any psychiatric or neurologic medication. There’s an entire special sub-type of brain cells that control what actually makes it out of the blood and to the neurons and getting things past that barrier is quite difficult.
Get outta here your nuance and critical thinking. /s
I have Adha and hypertension. As such I have an unused bottle of amlodapine at home. I’ll take it and report back
!remindmebot@lemmy.world 30 days
It’ll be the same flat, cheap prescription price as all prescribed medication is though, so it doesn’t really matter what it is or how it was produced.
It’s only countries like the USA that somehow get duped into paying wildly obese financial sums for cheap medicine. I feel for them.
Is it going to still work on blood pressure? I don’t like the idea of taking meds because I want to resolve things with diet and exercise when possible, and I’m afraid of side effects. But if I eventually have to start taking a blood pressure medication and the side effect is it makes my ADHD better, I could get on board with that.
They’re reformulate it and call it something new. They’ll still sell amlodipine for blood pressure.
Yes, but this poses me with a self identity dilemma. Am I the type of person who takes a blood pressure medication that happens to treat their adhd, or am I more the sort who takes adhd meds which happen to treat their high blood pressure?
From what I understand about blood pressure, you should consider taking the meds now and then moving off them once diet and exercise have helped the situation. Hypertension is bad for you health.
That’s a really good heads up. I hadn’t thought about it much from that angle - that I might already be doing damage that’s hard to reverse.
I got my blood pressure machine from the basement and the first reading was systolic 141 diastolic 78. But I had just climbed stairs from the basement. I sat for a couple minutes and now it’s 115 over 75. Less anxiety inducing. Definitely something I should be tracking frequently and not have tucked away in the basement though.
Clonidine can do that
On the bright side, off-label drug prescription is legal and ethical, if a bit bizarre.
common blood pressure drugs are already used to treat ADHD and in my experience they’re pretty fucking bad at it compared to stimulants.
Agreed. I used to take Guanfacine, and it helped barely.
So uh, what if I already take this for blood pressure. Am I getting a double whammy?
I literally just came off amlodipine because it was making me dizzy. Fffuuuccckk no wonder I feel like shit 😭
I had a doctor try to force me off my atenolol and metoprolol to amlodipine. Ostensibly because she “didn’t like” that I was taking such a high dose of two separate beta-blocker meds. Not sure if she thought I was going to take them all in a fit of despair, or what, but it went really badly. My anxiety and ADHD were a lot worse, rather than better, and my BP skyrocketed.
I can’t take stimulants. My body can’t metabolize them well (or at all?), so I end up knocked unconscious for half the day. Basically, 6-8 hours where I can stay awake only by fighting tooth and nail. Even on fractional doses! Wild stuff. While their results are interesting (especially for those like me who failed every single non-stimulant, hard) this could be helpful. Oooor it could just be more big pharma BS with no up-side. So hard to tell anymore.
The danger with beta blockers is that they can affect a lot more than just your blood pressure. They also slow down your heart and can effect how certain hormones like thyroid hormones work in your body. It isn’t ideal to have someone maxed out on 2 medications from the same class and if that’s where you are up to, that’s kind of an indication that that medication might not be the right solution.
I would agree with you if any of the others I’ve tried had the desired effect. I’m already not medicated for several things because my body simply cannot metabolize whole classes of drugs. Having my kidneys shut down would suck a lot more, though.
My resting heartrate is fine, 60-70 BPM. BP is well controlled. No orthostatic hypotension.
Two cardiologists have told me it’s fine if this is what works for me. I hear you, but I’m not taking something newer just to make my GP more comfortable and me less so. They’re my doctor, not vice versa.
I wonder if an alpha blocker or direct vasodilator might work better for you if you haven’t tried them yet. Or an alpha blocker like prazosin on top of a beta blocker.
Not sure!
I have insane PVCs that have so far made other classes less attractive. Even when I’m well-medicated with my atenolol I still get the “anxiety” feeling as my heart valve leaks. Unmedicated I feel like I can’t breathe at all, which is awful. And my BP then goes into the 200/100 range (I am not exaggerating, I wish I was).
My liver basically can’t metabolize CYP2B6 or CYP2D6 mediated drugs, so anything believed to be carried into the body by those will screw me up so badly I often won’t even try. (I’ve nearly ended up in the ER several times now trying 75% of the anti-depressants out there, which I needed badly once I realized my ADHD an fribromyalgia would never be medicated. As an example. ;)
I’ve taken Amlodipine in the past, and while it was effective at controlling blood pressure it basically turned me into a zombie. I didn’t feel like doing anything while taking it. I don’t see how that could help with ADHD.
