Use of Carvedilol?

Saw this on my mother’s counter.

googling it is freaking me out a bit. Can it be prescribed for just high blood pressure? The “congestive heart failure” part is giving me concern. 

hi. 

I'm not sure if you got to this page or not:

https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a697042.html As you can see, your mom should hopefully be on a fairly low dose, know exactly how to take it (and store it), and she should also be monitored for its efficacy (signs of those worrying effects). 

I'm not sure what those off-label uses are, sorry. But if it's any help, I take low doses of strong cardiac meds for my chronic migraines (as preventives - they control the electrical 'current' controlling the cells that widen/narrow the blood vessels from heart through neck and brain) and I also take anti-spasm meds for epilepsy but again as preventives for chronic migraines because they control how muscle fibres react to pain messages around the scalp and spine. 

So, this might just be a better way to control her blood pressure now that the doctors know more about the specific problem.  Are you able to ask?

if it were for anything other than blood pressure, I wouldn’t get the truth anyway.

Thanks!

The Filial clause in HIPAA makes you a covered entity, and, thus, this social media disclosure a breach. A "HIPAA violation".  HIPAA makes no provision for a free pass on Mother's Day.

whatever.

Anyone have any other info on this? Is it prescribed for HBP alone?

you can ask a pharmacist, but in my experience they are not reliable sources

No worries - I've been on it for years. Low dose (3.125mg) twice a day. I used to have occasional palpitations & this med is great for that. I am SUPER cautious about the meds I'm on & ask LOADS of questions about side effects & such. Your Mom is lucky to have you so concerned!

thank you! They tend to 1) not want to worry anyone but also 2) just do/take anything the doctor says so I try to keep up a bit. 

dickf3 said:
The Filial clause in HIPAA makes you a covered entity, and, thus, this social media disclosure a breach. A "HIPAA violation".  HIPAA makes no provision for a free pass on Mother's Day.

What are you talking about? Are you joking? A family member is not a covered entity. HHS has no authority over family members and no remedy for "breaches" by family members.

https://privacyruleandresearch.nih.gov/pr_06.asp

Covered entities are defined in the HIPAA rules as (1) health plans, (2) health care clearinghouses, and (3) health care providers who electronically transmit any health information in connection with transactions for which HHS has adopted standards. Generally, these transactions concern billing and payment for services or insurance coverage. For example, hospitals, academic medical centers, physicians, and other health care providers who electronically transmit claims transaction information directly or through an intermediary to a health plan are covered entities. Covered entities can be institutions, organizations, or persons.

had a chat with my pharmacist, as I was picking up my meds, to find out more about this medication. (I often ask about medications, 'for a friend', that a client might have asked me about or asked to get info in another language, or that D has been talking about) Pharmacist said its excellent for controlling blood pressure , it does this by helping to control the heart rhythm  and (even better) by helping with oxygenation.

'It's really good; take it as prescribed, get tested every 6 months and everything should be fine', he smiled.

FWIW I don’t take it, but I just had a sleep study done and it was mentioned (along with a couple of other meds) that if I was on it for blood pressure the dose would need to be changed short term for the study. Obviously not the same as talking directly to a doctor or pharmacist, but it does seem to suggest that it is also prescribed for BP and not just for heart failure.

Carvedilol is a drug that has 2 mirror-like compounds in it that act like a mixture of Inderal (propranolol) -> a non-selective beta receptor blocker, and Minipress (prazosin) -> an alpha-1 receptor blocker. Those two medicines were at the forefront of modern antihypertensive therapy back in the 70's-80's. And those concepts still work some 40 years later.

Blocking the beta receptors helps the heart not beat so hard and this has a number of clinical uses such as: Suppressing arrhythmias, reducing blood pressure, treating ventricular hypertrophy and even heart failure in some cases. When you reduce either the force of contraction or the rate of contraction (or both) the cardiac output is reduced, thus reducing the fluid pressure of the blood being pushed through the arteries, or pre-load (the systolic, or higher, number in the BP numbers is a measure of the circulatory system's cardiac output).

Blocking the alpha-1 receptors has a most prominent effect of relaxing the arterial smooth muscle. That causes vasodilation and it's like reducing the pressure in the blood's plumbing system. There are many clinical situations that call for reducing the blood pressure by focusing on the blood vessels, or after-load (the diastolic, or lower, BP number is a measure of the total peripheral resistance of the circulatory system).

Blood pressure is like the answer to doing the integral calculus of measuring cardiac output and total peripheral resistance.

This drug actually combines those two effects.

https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a697042.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7914479

Why she's on it is up for discussion. Obviously with her doctor if she can't really describe it herself. But suffice to say that a medicine like this has usefulness in several clinical situations. People can be on a medicine like this for decades.

Spouse was on inderal or generic since mid-90s for heart arrhythmia.  His dosage no longer supported by our insurance so doc changed his med to something else.  idnk what the new med is. Now I realize I need to check it out and focus on what it is.  So far it appears to be an ok substitute.  (I do rely on him to tell me if he has an issue with the substitution.) 

 FWIW, the new  script is ridiculously cheaper than the one for genetic inderal.

this might be a reason as well. Dad retired in October and I think their insurance changed somewhat as a result in 2018. 

Thanks for all this good info!

bikefixed, good to see you.