Mental Health
Mental health
Propranolol is sometimes used to ease the physical symptoms of anxiety. Recently, there has been some concern about the involvement of propranolol in accidental poisoning, especially when people are also taking antidepressants.
Dr Hayley Gorton and colleagues at Aston University have previously referred to the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality (NPSUM) to look at the involvement of propranolol in deaths by suicide. This collection of reports was set up in 1997 to analyse deaths in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that are related to psychoactive drug use.
The team noticed that there were more deaths related to the combined use of propranolol and a particular antidepressant than expected. This new project will allow researchers to investigate whether people are more likely to die by suicide or accidental poisoning when propranolol is prescribed alongside various antidepressants. They will use anonymised data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) - collected as part of usual care from GP surgeries.
As a result of this study, Dr Gorton and her team aim to uncover if patients who take a particular propranolol-antidepressant combination are more likely to die by suicide or accidental poisoning than those taking other medication combinations. This will help prescribers to make more informed decisions concerning antidepressants. Project results could improve prescribing guidelines for better patient safety and care.