Experts alarmed by beta blocker use for anxiety amid TikTok hype
Celebrities and TikTokers are hyping up using heart medication for anxiety. But experts say it can have serious, and even fatal, consequences.
Experts fear young Australians are being seduced by social media buzz around using cardiovascular medication, which has been involved in hundreds of deaths nationwide, for anxiety.
Celebrities and TikTokers are glorifying using beta blockers, a type of medication prescribed to slow the heart rate and traditionally used to treat conditions like high blood pressure, to feel more physically relaxed in social settings.
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists spokesman Richard Harvey said while beta blockers were not recommended by the college as a treatment for anxiety disorders, using them in a bid to reduce stress had become increasingly popular.
Prof Harvey said this had been driven by celebrity endorsements and was concerning.
“If patients take too much, it’s really dangerous,” he said.
“It has the definite potential to kill people, because in excessive quantities it will slow the heart to such a point that the person passes out or the heart stops.”
At the 2024 Golden Globes, actor Robert Downey Jr told the audience his acceptance speech would be a “breeze” given he had taken a beta blocker, and Khloe Kardashian has confessed to loving the pills on her reality show.
On TikTok, young women flaunt beta blockers they use for anxiety, dubbing them “great” and “life-changing”.
People use the pills for high-pressure moments like performing or public speaking.
“They are basically being used to mask some symptoms of anxiety, particularly the racing heart, but they don’t have any effect on the actual anxiety disorder itself,” Prof Harvey said.
In Victoria there were 117 overdose deaths involving propranolol, a beta blocker commonly used off-label for anxiety, between 2015 and 2024, grim data from the coroners court reveals.
Twelve were propranolol-only overdose deaths, while the rest involved combined drug toxicity.
Since the 2014-15 financial year there have been 79 deaths in Queensland classified as suspected drug, alcohol, or poison-related where propranolol was the primary contributing factor.
In a further three deaths under this classification the medication was a secondary contributing factor, data from the Coroners Court of Queensland shows.
Over the same period propranolol was identified as the primary contributing factor in 45 additional deaths and secondary in another 14 classified as suspected suicide, natural causes, unknown, or transported related.
The NSW Poisons Information Centre recorded 441 calls about exposures to propranolol in 2024, an increase of almost 20 per cent since 2020.
Heart Foundation chief medical adviser Garry Jennings said the organisation was particularly concerned by reports of increasing propranolol overdoses.
“These findings suggest a growing trend of intentional misuse, especially among younger Australians influenced by social media narratives promoting beta blockers as a ‘quick fix’,” Prof Jennings said.
“Beta blockers are a critical medication for people with cardiovascular conditions, including arrhythmias and heart failure.”
An article recently published by the Medical Journal of Australia noted the UK poisons information service reported a 41 per cent increase in propranolol prescriptions from 2007 to 2017, followed by a 205 per cent rise in propranolol‐related deaths between 2017 and 2021.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners psychological medicine chair Karen Spielman said propranolol would not be a common or first-line solution for anxiety.
Dr Spielman said there were many effective non-drug treatments, and more effective and safe medications than propranolol.
“There are definite serious risks including side effects of dizziness and tiredness, adverse impacts on medical conditions such as asthma and diabetes, and dangerous interactions with other drugs,” she said.
She said propranolol being treated as a trend on social media was “really worrying”.
“People are stressed and suffering enough as it is with anxiety, without being exposed to ill-informed and simplistic, and at worst dangerous, advice,” she said.
The federal health department said regular beta blocker use could cause side effects, but generally they were minor.
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Originally published as Experts alarmed by beta blocker use for anxiety amid TikTok hype
