CATAPRES Reviews (CLONIDINE HYDROCHLORIDE)

Average Rating: 2.2 (77 Ratings)

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 CENTRAL AGONISTS ANTIHYPERTENSIVES

 Type: Rx Drug

  

CATAPRES  (CLONIDINE HYDROCHLORIDE):  This medication is used alone or with other medications to treat high blood pressure (hypertension). Lowering high blood pressure helps prevent strokes, heart attacks, and kidney problems. Clonidine belongs to a class of drugs (central alpha agonists) that act in the brain to lower blood pressure. It works by relaxing blood vessels so blood can flow more easily.    (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)

  

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Key to Ratings: 1=LOW (I would not recommend taking this medicine.)
5=HIGH (this medicine cured me or helped me a great deal.)

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More on CATAPRES: Reviews Summary  |  Drug Safety Information

RATING  REASONSIDE EFFECTS FOR CATAPRESCOMMENTSSEXAGEDURATION/
DOSAGE
DATE ADDED
 
 2  Menopause - hot flushes Extreme fatigue. I stopped taking catapres as it did not relieve the hot flushes and the extreme fatigue was too debilitating F 52 1 months
3/30/2004
 2  Menopause - hot flushes Extreme fatigue. I stopped taking catapres as it did not relieve the hot flushes and the extreme fatigue was too debilitating F 52 1 months
3/30/2004
 1  high blood pressure depression, anxiety, vivid dreams that lasted a few seconds after waking and nightmares, shakiness There are better medications available without such serious, potential side effects. F 34 15 days
11/26/2004
 1  pain depression and constant fatigue, drowsiness, frequent urination F 69 2 weeks
1/11/2005
 3  high blood pressure F 52 5 days
2/4/2005
 4  high blood pressure lowers bp for 16 hrs F 52 7 days
2/10/2005
 4  blood pressure when taking a patch, the adhesive caused skin irritation. the drug works adequately. I have to make sure I take doses on time, as it clears the system quickly. It keeps my menopausal hot flashes at a minimum. F 54 3 years
2/20/2005
 2  menopausal - hot flashes I was on only a 0.1 mg tablet daily for about 3 months. Now I am taking a 0.2 mg tablet daily and still find no relief of hot flashes. I understand this is a very low dose but am apprehensive about taking the patch or a higher dose. Doctor cautions about possible dizziness with increased doses. Flashes are so bad, I am willing to give this a shot for a longer time period. So far, I am having no side effects positive or negative. F 56 4 months
2/26/2005
 2  Migraine Headaches Elevated Blood Pressure, weight gain, muscle cramps, aches and pains, dry eyes, change in taste, heart palpitations - over time, benefit for headaches ceased. After starting Catapres, I put on weight and my blood pressure became elevated - I thought BP elevation was due to weight gain - After I developed rash from patch and switched to oral (same dosage) -side effects were worse - slowly discontinued medication and side effects diminished AND blood pressure returned to normal! I don't understand this! F 60 700 days
9/19/2005
 2  High Blood pressure Extreme dry mouth--even though it says the drug has a half life of 6hours, dry mouth lasts for over 24hours after discontinuation. Fatigue. Minimal eye dryness. Sleepy, not good while driving at all; very dangerous. Dose taken 300mcg/day. Changes in mood, slight depression, loss of sex drive. This drug has the most side effects of anthying else and the list goes on. Whoever approved this should be put to death. Useless drug for reducing blood pressure and should be pulled off the market. All it does is give side effects. I also noticed while taking this drug that I would move my arms while sleeping at night, kinda of like sleepwalking motions. I'd actually wake up and see myself doing that. Once I woke up and I was sleeping in a "muslim praying" position. M 7 days
10/29/2005
 3  High blood pressure At first the patch was wonderful because of the lack of side effects and the excellent control of very high blood pressure. After a couple of months on the patch, the itching and skin rash were/are almost intolerable. The other side effect that began thereafter three is anxiety and depression. I wish there were another drug that could control my BP without all the side effects. I wrote to the manufacturer in Germany without any response. That is disappointing. F 66 6 months
3/30/2006
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 3  Severe Hypertension Exreme fatigue and dry mouth, dry skin, hair, eyes. Is working better than anything else I've tried in lowering BP from 160/106 to 129/89 or so, but that fluctuates due to the short life of the drug. Don't know if I can continue to take at least during the day-I am falling asleep at my desk, meetings, etc. Cannot shake the pure lethargy and fatigue F 46 6 days
5/3/2006
 4  Orthostatic intolerance & tourettes Weight gain. I've used the patch for several years with no skin problems. I take this to raise my blood pressure, not lower it, and it works great for that. It seems to help ticks some but not great. I am searching for causes of insomnia which brought me to this site. They say the % is low. F 42 5 years
5/24/2006
 5  Blood Pressure Surges/High BP I first took clonidine/catapres for uncontrolled blood pressure surges, and it worked fantastically, very fast control. They also used it on me in the ER. Extreme tiredness is a side effect---this caused me to take 1/4 to 1/2 tab of .1mg on a regular basis, and it still works perfectly. BUT, YOU MUST NOT CONSUME ANY ALCOHOL WITH CLONIDINE. Alcohol, even one drink, reverses the effect of clonidine. Moderate alcohol (a few glasses of wine for several days) will completely stop clonidine from working for 24 hours--you will need ER and a different drug to bring down BP. Once I realized this, I found many research papers on the alcohol effect in animals. I now have no side effects from clonidine, because I quit drinking. YOU MUST NOT CONSUME ANY ALCOHOL WITH CLONIDINE. If you need to drink, find a different medication. The "Avoid Alcohol" warning is a joke--you can't drink at all without diminishing the effectiveness of this drug. F 49 3 months
6/5/2006
 1  High BP I LOVED the idea of a once a week patch! Less to remember, steady dosage of drug. And it worked great for the first two years! But now I have developed severe itching and pustules at site of patch. I have to keep switching the site of the patch. I took a break of several months from the patch, then returned to it two months ago. Now, in addition to the pustules and itchiness under the patch, I have also developed itchy scalp and unbearable itching on my earlobes, esp. the left one (I wear the patch on my left arm). I am off it, permanently. I will not use it again. I have read that switching to Clonidine pills after developing an allergy to the patch could trigger a whole body allergic reaction. F 59 3 years
7/5/2006
 1  blood pressure I get hives in the back of my throat with nagging cough within 10 minutes of taking a catapres pill. Then fatigue hits so overwhelming it can be difficult to focus. I gained weight on this medicine. There are several classes of blood pressure medicines I cannot take. Hytrin sent me to the emergency room looking like Garfield the cat. That was scary. The emergency room doctor lowered my blood pressure with catapres. Then my family doctor kept writing scrips for the medicine even though it never adequately controlled my blood pressure. Just before it is time to take a does of catapres, my blood pressure spikes. My doctor took me off of the catapres and put me on benicor which put me in the emergency room. The doctor said NEVER ABRUPTLY STOP TAKING CATAPRES. Your pressure will rebound spike. It is a withdrawal symptom. I decided to go to a heart doctor who is weaning me off of catapress instead of relying on my family doctor to lower my blood pressure. Why are they selling a blood pressure pill that actually raises your blood pressure just before it is time to take your next pill? F 51 5 months
7/27/2006
 4  High Blood Pressure Light dizziness. With the patch severe itching after a year and had to discontinue and use the tablets. I was put on the 1 mg patch at first, then moved to the 2mg patch shortly thereafter which I tolerated for a year and 2 months. I say tolerated because it was hell living with the itching but the benefits were worth it to me. I felt 100% better until one evening I had to go to the ER room because my BP had gone up suddenly (210/110). I was put on the 3mg patch then and only tolerated it for 4 days. I had to get off the patch because I just couldn't tolerate the itching any more. I am now on tablets and so far (1 week) I've had only minor side effects (light dizzeness, etc.). Overall this drug has worked for me in keeping my BP lowered. M 63 1 years
8/7/2006
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 1  High Blood pressure There are many side effects. The worst ones are severe Headaches when I wake,The Drug is not predictable,lack of energy.It slows your Heart rate too much! It seems to cause some depression. Don't ever take this Medication unless it's an Emergency. After 9 months on this Drug, I'm up to 0.3 Mg.x 4 times a Day, and it isn't working very well. I'm now mixing small amounts of viagra to lower my BP when it gets too High.I'm becoming more and more immune to this drug and have no idea of a BP Drug to help it work, or replace it over time. I thought I had found a great Drug for High Blood Pressure because it worked so good at first. The Drug is more addictive than Valium, and should not be on the market for anything. This is a living nightmare! ANY IDEAS??? DATE POSTED 10/20/06 M 53 9 months
10/20/2006
 2  Problems getting to sleep Usually I wake up really dizzy and semi-conscious. Two times something very scary happened. The first scary thing which happened was when I woke up and my entire field of vision was limited to a small box, and that box was shaking like crazy around my entire head while zooming in; luckily it zoomed in an fixed itself after about 30 seconds, but it was very frightening. The second scary thing happened just now. This time I did take .15 milligrams which is very slightly over the normal amount ans usually doesn't matter, but I won't be doing it again; I woke up and I couldn't move my right arm at all except for 3 fingers. It was extremely scary, and my arm felt like a brick of flesh. I'm glad it came back to functioning regularly after a minute, but that was extremely scary (I was on no other medication both times). It was prescribes to be taken when needed, but I don't know how safe catapres is, though I rarely have any considering the crazy side effects it has managed to cause. M 18
3/8/2007
Email
 2  High Blood Pressure The .2mg patch of clonidine helps my Blood Pressure, but after switching from the tablets to the patch, within a week, my hair started to thin quite a bit. Now I'm getting depressed about this. I want to switch back to the pills, but I don't know how to go about it yet. Going to talk to my cardiologist and see what can be done. This happened to anyone else???? F 64 18 months
4/7/2007
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CATAPRES  (CLONIDINE HYDROCHLORIDE):  This medication is used alone or with other medications to treat high blood pressure (hypertension). Lowering high blood pressure helps prevent strokes, heart attacks, and kidney problems. Clonidine belongs to a class of drugs (central alpha agonists) that act in the brain to lower blood pressure. It works by relaxing blood vessels so blood can flow more easily.    (Sources: U.S. Centers for Medicare Services, FDA)

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