I occasionally have panic attacks, and my blood pressure goes up by about 50 points when I am having an anxiety attack. I’m curious as to how this works.
Why does this happen exactly? I believe there are 5 adrenergic receptors that catecholamines act on. What catecholamines (I’m assuming it would be either adrenaline or noradrenaline) and what receptor causes the BP spike?
I once tried beta blockers for panic disorder. They helped a bit with physical symptoms of anxiety like cold feet and physically feeling anxious, and they would stop my heart rate from going up during a panic attack (my pulse would spike by 50-60 points as well as my BP) but my blood pressure still went up.
Is the alpha-1 receptor the one that causes a blood pressure spike? If so, is it adrenaline, noradrenaline or something else that causes the increase?