
Having Blood Pressure. Taking Venlafaxine And Ritalin. Suggest

of their blood pressure going up taking less than 200 mg of
Venlafaxine? I also take 2-3 Ritalin per day for ADD Which is more likely to cause
Hyper-tension? Been on Ritalin off and on for several years.
Venlafaxine only 3 months, now at 117 mg. Thanks
Thanks for your query.
I appreciate your efforts for medical consultation in so much distress.
Important aspects of your query are:
• 64 year old female
• Known case of breast cancer, joint replacements, PTSD after multiple traumas, depression, anxiety and ADD.
• Concern related rise in BP with Venlafaxine use.
Venlafaxine is used for anxiety, depression and PTSD. It is a serotonin+norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.
At low doses (150 mg/day), it acts on serotonergic and noradrenergic systems. It can cause both transient and sustained elevations of diastolic blood pressure, probably the result of noradrenergic potentiation.
Venlafaxine is known to associated with increase BP, specially diastolic blood pressure. It is difficult to say about number of person develop high BP with it till now. But high BP occur in 4-6% of the persons using venlafaxine more than 300mg a day, in study population.
Ritalin can raise your blood pressure because it boosts norepinephrine, which in turn causes vasoconstriction (shrinks/tightens blood vessels), and thus increases the blood pressure. If you are using for long term without rise in blood pressure, than there is no need to worry.
Apart from that anxiety can also lead to 5-10 points increase in blood pressure.
I hope this information has been both informative and helpful for you. In case of any doubt, I will be available for follow ups.
Wish you good health.
Regards,

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