Word: propranolol
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...Charles Brantigan, University of Colorado heart surgeon and part-time tuba player. In an experiment conducted at New York's Juilliard School and the University of Nebraska, Brantigan, together with his conductor-brother Thomas (whose idea it was), tested the effect of a hypertension drug called propranolol on the performance anxiety of 29 professional and student musicians. Each subject gave two solo recitals before an audience of critics and faculty members. Ninety minutes before one recital, they were given propranolol; on the other occasion, a placebo...
Stage fright was assessed by wire-free, remote electrocardiogram monitoring during the performance and blood pressure readings before and after. The Brantigans also checked for such outward signs of stress as trembling hands and sweaty brows. By all measures, propranolol stopped the shakes. Heart rates that galloped at an average of 148 beats a minute with a placebo dropped to around 104 with propranolol (70 is a normal resting rate). Even more impressive, critics overwhelmingly favored the propranolol-soothed performances...
...Propranolol belongs to a class of drugs known as beta blockers that gained widespread use in the 1970s. The drugs block nerve impulses to special sites (beta receptors) in body tissues. They reduce the rate at which the heart beats and the force of its contractions, thus decreasing its work load. More than a dozen beta blockers are in use worldwide, primarily for treatment of severe chest pain (angina), high blood pressure and arrhythmias...
...Propranolol, the first beta blocker introduced in the U.S., is also the nation's second most widely prescribed drug (after the antiulcer drug Tagamet). Ayerst Laboratories, which manufactures propranolol under the name Inderal, plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve its use as a post-heart attack treatment. As it is, physicians are free to prescribe it since it is already approved for other uses. Many heart attack patients are taking Inderal for other heart-related conditions. The FDA is also expected to rule favorably soon on Merck Sharp & Dohme's application to introduce another...
...Propranolol's side effects are comparatively mild. Researchers caution that they do not know how long its protective effects last and when it should be discontinued. Even so, says Friedewald, the new test results represent an "exciting breakthrough...