Ignacio Morgado
Professor Emeritus of Psychobiology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and full member of the Spanish Academy of Psychology
Beta-blockers are drugs used to treat conditions such as hypertension, arrhythmias, angina pectoris or even anxiety. They work by limiting the effect of adrenergic neurotransmitters (adrenaline, noradrenaline) by binding to and blocking their neuronal receptors.
Given the well-founded suspicion that β-blocker treatment could lead to adverse psychiatric side effects, a large group of professionals from clinical and research centres in Sweden, the UK and the US have conducted an exhaustive eight-year follow-up of nearly 1.5 million subjects, men and women, most of them over 50 years old, treated with β-blockers, looking at how many of them developed disorders that required psychiatric hospitalisation, suicidal behaviour or violent criminal behaviour. The study was rigorous in its methodological controls.
The results, of great clinical interest, showed little relationship between β-blocker treatment and psychiatric symptoms, but revealed a significant relationship with a reduction in violence, which opens the door to the possible use of these drugs for the therapeutic treatment of aggressive and violent behaviour.