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RE: BetaBlockers

Author: diane k.
Date: 1999-08-17 00:36

STuart wrote:
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What I'm curious about is: is there a difference between betablockers and say, a shot of rum? (other than the fact that the band might think your a lush) What do you think?

In terms of their mechanisms of action (and therefore some of the effects), rum (alcohol) and beta blockers are very different. Beta-blockers block part of the sympathetic ("fight or flight") nervous system. The shaking, nervous stomach, and dry mouth you get when you're nervous are due to the sympathetic system activating beta-receptors on your cells (very much simplified...). Beta-blockers stop/minimize these physical signs of nervousness. Alcohol has more general effects on a lot of different brain regions - not just the autonomic nervous system. You can still get nervous when you take beta-blockers (since "nervousness" is a function of your conscious/unconscious interpretation of what's going on), you just won't feel the effects as much (or at all). The interesting thing is that the symptoms of being nervous actually intensify the sensation of nervousness - you key into the fact that you are sweating, shaky, etc... and that makes you more nervous. By blocking those effects with beta-blocker, the hope is that you keep the nervousness to a tolerable minimum. With alcohol, you blunt all aspects of the system, so you may not feel "as" nervous, but you've also blunted motor control. Both beta-blockers and alcohol IMPAIR your fine motor skills (such as tongue-finger coordination), beta blockers to a lesser extent than alcohol. Someone who takes beta-blockers for stage fright (which is what I assume the context is here) is doing a balancing act - the stage fright has to be sufficiently severe that the motor impairment from fright is greater than that produced by the beta-blockers. Beta-blockers (combined with some coping skill sorts of things) can be used to overcome stage fright to such a degree that the beta-blockers are no longer necessary (i.e. you're not necessarily stuck with them for life). Often, just breaking the cycle (the physical symptoms of nervousness causing more nervousness, causing more physical symptoms and so on) for a few performances is a big part of getting past stage fright.
I hope this helps.

Diane Karius, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology
University of Health Sciences
Kansas City, MO.

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