Medical Uses
Large differences exist in the pharmacology of agents within the class, thus not all beta blockers are used for all indications listed below.
Indications for beta blockers include:
- Angina pectoris
- Atrial fibrillation
- Cardiac arrhythmia
- Chronic headaches
- Congestive heart failure
- Essential tremor
- Glaucoma
- Hypertension
- Migraine prophylaxis
- Mitral valve prolapse
- Myocardial infarction
- Phaeochromocytoma, in conjunction with α-blocker
- Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome
- Symptomatic control (tachycardia, tremor) in anxiety and hyperthyroidism
- Theophylline overdose
Beta blockers have also been used for:
- Acute aortic dissection
- Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy
- Marfan syndrome (treatment with propranolol slows progression of aortic dilation and its complications)
- Prevention of variceal bleeding in portal hypertension
- Possible mitigation of hyperhidrosis
- Social and other anxiety disorders
Read more about this topic: Beta Blocker
Famous quotes containing the word medical:
“There may perhaps be a new generation of doctors horrified by lacerations, infections, women who have douched with kitchen cleanser. What an irony it would be if fanatics continued to kill and yet it was the apathy and silence of the medical profession that most wounded the ability to provide what is, after all, a medical procedure.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the wearer’s character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our bodies.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)