Beta blockers (Inderal) and nocturnal hallucinations

I guess this situation is unique to me-will find out more at MD's tommorow

Glen AKA Billypilgram

Hey there Glen,

I am so sorry I was not available last night to help you out but I am glad to see  Rona was here to support you.

I take Inderal and have for years.  One of the side effect is hallucinations which you have found out.  I use it for a familial hand tremor.

I read your post from today and I am very relieved to see your physician has started you on a new medication.

Cartia (Diltiazem) is a  member of the group of drugs known as benzothiazepines, which are a class of calcium channel blockers, used in the treatment of hypertension, angina pectoris, and some types of arrhythmia.

You are now on a medication that is not related to Inderal.  I hope this one works for you and please continue to advocate for yourself - sounds like your Dr. is pretty wise.

Welcome to the forum.

Kindly,

Kitt

Hey, I am not normally on this forum but I've been having visual hallucinations my whole life at bedtime and for me they are quite normal. Not fun, usually, but I'm used to them and now my husband and I just laugh at the bizarre stuff I see. I have no art hanging in my bedroom anymore because it would just freak me out. There is a name for these - they aren't that unusual - I think they are called hypnagogic if they happen just as you fall asleep, and hypnopompic if they happen as you awaken. Look it up on Wikipedia. I don't think they are something to worry about, even if they are annoying.

This is my first post on the forum. I have been reading for some time since I was put on hypertension medication. I have been on Bystolic the past month and have had issues with insomnia. Thankfully, this appears to be letting up and I am almost back to a full night's sleep.

I have not had hallucinations. However, a possible side effect are vivid, sometimes violent, nightmares. I experienced this only one night. (Thank goodness!) It is slightly embarrassing, but I dreamed of being attacked by zombie cats. I know that sounds funny, but it was incredibly real! My rational mind knows this is understandable since I was watching a zombie show when I fell asleep with my cat lounged across my legs. It was extremely real for someone that usually says in her dreams, "I know this is s dream." It is a little disconcerting for a hypertension medication to have this effect, but I felt comforted when I read that other people were having some fairly wild dreams too.

I am new to this forum, but I came to this thread because I questioned about beta blockers and hallucinations. I am recently widowed and my husband died after five months of deterioration due in part to the drugs he was given in hospital. Previously he had two heart attacks in 2015 and 2017. I have also had a heart attack in August 2019. After each of the first two heart attacks my husband had problems with sleeping and other mental difficulties. He stopped the tablets reasonably quickly and returned to normal. He researched all of the tablets he had been given and realised that the only one of the tablets he had been given which was known to cause hallucination was the beta blocker. The first one was Bisoprolol, and after the second heart attack he was given Carvedelol. Both produced the same results in my husband, affecting his mental ability. During his last five months the cardiologists in the UK hospitals were determined to give him beta blockers despite being told otherwise and he did have hallucinations right up to the end. The doctors would not believe us when we said he was allergic to the beta blockers because all the studies showed they were "well tolerated". Sorry but they did not where my husband was concerned. It is classed as a rare case. What made things worse was his heart was showing AF (atrial fibulation) Also several of the drugs I discovered given for heart problems can mask a reduction in blood sugar and diabetics should be monitored more closely. They did only minimal monitoring. and when he went to a care home did not inform the staff there about this. I don't think the doctors were even aware of this problem. He kept leaving hospital and going back because of breathing problems and whilst I tried to do all I could to care for him despite my own multiple health issues he was struggling to sleep at night and keeping me awake, and slept through the day when I had to stay awake to do other things. Hence the care home. Then one day I was called to the home because he was ill and an ambulance had been called. He was having a HYPOGLYCEMIC episode. Blood sugar, 1.2, blood pressure low, oxygen low. He survived another 3 days and the staff on the diabetic ward worked hard to save him, but he finally died peacefully in his sleep. I was unhappy with the way the cause of death was being displayed and it was nothing to do with Covid-19. The coroner was persuaded to do an autopsy and the final result was death by broncho-pneumonia, with heart failure and COPD. This last part was a shock to me as no-one had ever told my husband or myself he had COPD. He was never given a spirometry test. And apart from having oxygen in hospital whenever he was home no-one gave him anything to help his breathing. I have since researched COPD and learned that this can cause heart problems including AF as well as hallucinations. Was this the cause all along? At the end my husband was taking 19 tablets a day, some being multiples of other, and 13 tablets at one time each day. One of the tablets was an anti-psychotic drug called Haloperidol. I have made a complaint to the hospital trust but it is now on hold because of the pandemic. Don't know when it will recommence, if the people involved are not sick or dead themselves. The drugs, to my mind played a big part in my husband's death, and the failure to even check for COPD is nothing more than negligence considering he was continually complaining about his breathing problems. Hope this puts things into context for some of you.