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Prazosin, for anxiety, alcohol use disorder

As alpha blockers should have (very) roughly comparable effects to clonidine - yes, it will be anxiolytic, but also sedative to the point of being only usable for breaking severe panic disorder. For me it's also failed as a withdrawal aid (while the potentially pro-hypertonic memantine worked) but I see that for more severe cases it might be different. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
plumbus-nine said:
As alpha blockers should have (very) roughly comparable effects to clonidine - yes, it will be anxiolytic, but also sedative to the point of being only usable for breaking severe panic disorder. For me it's also failed as a withdrawal aid (while the potentially pro-hypertonic memantine worked) but I see that for more severe cases it might be different. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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so you used it for WD from alcohol and it hasnt worked out? maybe give me more details, side effect profile, benefits vs negatives etc.
what is that comparing it to clonidine? i already do have clonidine. do you believe from your own experience using both meds, they act very similar? i might as well just stick to clonidine, yes?
 
Sorry, I meant clonidine which was useless for me in withdrawal (opioid, never got w/d from alcohol despite phases of heavy drinking, but in both it's here about excessive adrenergic stimulation).
Clonidine is a weird one, but also I'm having weird genetics ... I've always been afraid of unopposed alpha agonism; alpha receptors cause vasoconstriction while beta ones dilate, so theoretically it's bad to use beta blockers alongside stimulants and specially in related emergencies but then an old friend of mine was prescribed ungodly doses of d-amphetamine like 150mg and took even more of it - high blood pressure of course, and got propranolol to counter this, nothing bad happened. Strangely beta receptors also cause tachycardia while alpha ones seem to be less prone to this (clonidine didn't do shit for tachycardia while beta blockers lower both pulse & BP) and your body can live better with just alpha than just beta (clonidine also causes heavy orthostatic hypotension, sedation, can be hypnotic or insomniac, etc.. enough of it makes you kinda feel like one would expect from an antipsychotic, just without the really bad things).

I've done clonidine (maybe 150mcg) + beta blocker (don't remember which one, maybe metoprolol, maybe propranolol) - the result was weird, not sedating, but couldn't walk just 100m - so yes, you need norepinephrine. I've always seen it as bad, because I'm prone to anxiety and similar things ..

After thinking about, my initial statement was a bit short thought. Maybe prazosine is indeed good for alcohol withdrawal and related anxiety but I don't feel it's something one would want to be on to be when not necessary. Beta blockers are seen as superior for a reason, and they (in light cases) even work for withdrawal related adrenergic spikes.
My favorite are nmda antagonists, they are able to turn the horrible dysphoria of withdrawals into usable euphoria but that's just me. I know they use clonidine in hospitals.

Forgot to mention carvedilol, which is an alpha + beta blocker. It was certainly less tiring than clonidine but unfortunately didn't try in relevant moments..
 
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