Medications and heartbeat

Hi all - I made a parallel post to this in the psychology corner. What experiences have people had with medications affecting their heartrate or heartbeat in general? Positive or negative, any type of medication you've taken or are taking.

I started taking Atomoxetine (Strattera) for ADHD. Overall its been a decent choice for me personally. However, one thing I have noticed is my heartrate is generally higher than previously. Normally I am in the low 60s (overall in pretty good physical shape), and the first week or two taking the meds I was in the 80s and 90s. Its somewhat lower now - I seem to be sitting in the 70s to low 80s, and sometimes dip back into the 60s.

As stated in my other post, the meds have sort of magnified my med-fet and stethoscope fetishes. Not in a way that I cannot control myself or creates massive dysfunction, but the "cravings" do seem to hit harder. A couple of times when I first started taking Strattera I got super horny and stethed myself, and my heartrate was definitely 100 without me really touching myself. Would have loved to share that with others!

I’m on Sertraline for depression/anxiety and likewise it’s turned out to be a good choice because it works for me with minimal side effects, but the list of side effects you can get from it is huge and when I first started taking it in August last year I read the list of what might happen to me and I did notice there were heart-related effects possible, but I got none of them. What I did find is that it affected my ability to get hard and sometimes I’d fail to come even when aroused, but I can still do it, it just takes more work (no it’s NOT just that I turned 40 this year =P). I guess the reason it’s relevant to this discussion is that like the OP my favourite part of medfet is the stethoscope fetish and I’ve found that it still works for me but it takes longer, more concentration and a certain situation for me to be able to get what I used to get before taking the meds…but I guess that’s part of the fun!

Not familiar with Straterra but a Google search says it is a non stimulant medication. I myself was on Ritalin for several years for ADHD as a child back in the 70's and it definitely increased my heartrate due to being a stimulant. Would definitely suggest discussing with your physician.

Not familiar with Straterra but a Google search says it is a non stimulant medication. I myself was on Ritalin for several years for ADHD as a child back in the 70's and it definitely increased my heartrate due to being a stimulant. Would definitely suggest discussing with your physician.

While Straterra is not a direct stimulant, it is a Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. I.e., it increases the amount of natural snd active norepinephrine in the body. Norepinephrine triggers the sympathetic nervous response (the "fight/flight" response) which, among other things, increases heart rate and causes vasoconstriction increasing blood pressure (it's something we can give in an emergency when a patients BP drops to dangerous levels).

A very common med is metoprolol (or a beta blocker). It's been around forever. The way i describe it to patients is, among other things, it buffers the amount of epinephrine (aka adrenaline) going to your heart, particularly the SA node (aka the hearts pace maker). It's sort of like putting a governor on your engine. Not a perfect analogy, but it inhibits the amount of epinephrine/adrenaline going to the hearts adrenaline receptors, so the heart cannot respond as profoundly. It used to be given to people who were stressed out as a sort of tranquilizer. It also can lower BP. We give it to patients with atrial fib who have a high heart rate or a rapid ventricular response. Sometimes a high dose used to control the high rate in afib will cause the heart to convert out of afib back into sinus rhythm and a low heart rate when in normal sinus rhythm.

@RocketStripe90 - I hear ya on the SSRIs. I took Sertraline for a while; initially the sexual side effects were kind of bad for me, but at least got better over time. Stethoscope play definitely helps!

@Aardvark Increased HR and BP is a pretty common side effect for Strattera, and I was warned about it. As with most medications, the side effects tend to improve over time, and after the first week or so the borderline tachycardia has gotten generally better. Being a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, its not surprising.

On a kind of personal side note, one thing I experience is my ejaculation (not orgasm, that's otherwise normal) is more like a "flow" now on the Strattera, rather than your typical "shooting". Its odd, but its also kind of cool from a weird sexual-medical experiment standpoint I guess. Its due to norepinephrine having effects on the urethral sphincters and smooth muscle, so its not as "contractile" per se.