Certain medications, drugs, supplements and other substances can elevate or worsen blood pressure or interfere with the actions of medications you are taking to control hypertension. Some specific antidepressants have been linked to increase or worsening the already existing high blood pressure in a patient.
Anti-depressants are class of drugs that are usually taken to treat depression, bipolar disorder or mood-related disorder. These drugs work primarily by changing the levels of certain chemicals (serotonin and dopamine) in the brain and nervous system. These chemicals regulate and co-ordinate interactions between different region of brain. Nowadays anti-depressants are increasingly used to treat variety of medical conditions and disorder besides depressive disorder. Serotonin and dopamine, however, play important roles in many parts of the body outside the nervous system. Both these compounds tend to affect heart and blood vessels, and anti-depressants drugs are designed to increase the available levels of these chemicals in the body. In concentrated amount, dopamine is also used as an emergency drug to increase blood pressure and heart rate during surgery and certain conditions where the blood pressure falls below the normal blood pressure i.e. 120/80 mm Hg. To some extent, serotonin too has similar blood-pressure raising effect and may increase the arterial blood-pressure.
Specific anti-depressants that are linked to increased blood pressure in the body include Buproprion, Venlafaxine (brand name Effexor), phenelzine(sold as Nardil). Combining tri-cyclic antidepressants with clonidine (catapers) may lead to dangerous elevations in blood pressure and heart beats because tri-cyclic anti-depressants inhibit the anti-hypertensive effect of clonidine.
So, if you have high blood pressure, you can still use anti-depressants with no problems but some may require little adjustments to their high blood pressure protocols. Your doctor or physician may choose to avoid certain anti-depressants and try-cyclic anti-depressants that elevate blood pressure.
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