<p>Your question has the implicit assumption that beta-blockers prevent or impair the ability to learn new information. This is incorrect. There were a series of studies done in the 1980s addressing this topic. These were reviewed in an Archives of Internal Medicine (now JAMA Internal Medicine) <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/611263" rel="nofollow noreferrer">study</a> that concluded: &quot;There is a suggestion in the literature that such agents [beta-blockers] may actually improve performance on complex tasks requiring well-controlled anxiety plus coordinated input from memory, perceptual motor functioning, and learning.&quot; Subsequent studies have looked at the effect of lipophilic beta-blockers like propranolol that can cross the blood-brain barrier and arrived at similar conclusions.</p>
<p>If your question was referring to memory consolidation during stressful situations, there's a recent <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35405409/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">meta-analysis</a> that suggests that propranolol has limited utility in preventing traumatic memory reconsolidation.</p>
<p>Learning involves a complex system beyond the three neurotransmitters you've listed, one that is still being investigated. Complex systems can rarely be understood from first principles e.g. if X, then Y.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-01-10T09:33:14.623Z
2024-01-10T09:33:14.623Z
Malcolm Forbes
<p>Learning is fundamentally linked to epinephrine, acetylcholin and dopamine.</p>
<p>Do heart pressure medication like beta blockers block these processes to some extent by reducing epinephrine?</p>

<learning><stress>
Do beta-blockers prevent ability to learn by reducing neuroplasticity?
TVSuchty
# Do beta-blockers prevent ability to learn by reducing neuroplasticity?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-01-09)

Learning is fundamentally linked to epinephrine, acetylcholin and dopamine.

Do heart pressure medication like beta blockers block these processes to some extent by reducing epinephrine?

**Tags:** learning, stress


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2024-01-10. Score: 1

Your question has the implicit assumption that beta-blockers prevent or impair the ability to learn new information. This is incorrect. There were a series of studies done in the 1980s addressing this topic. These were reviewed in an Archives of Internal Medicine (now JAMA Internal Medicine) [study](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/611263) that concluded: "There is a suggestion in the literature that such agents [beta-blockers] may actually improve performance on complex tasks requiring well-controlled anxiety plus coordinated input from memory, perceptual motor functioning, and learning." Subsequent studies have looked at the effect of lipophilic beta-blockers like propranolol that can cross the blood-brain barrier and arrived at similar conclusions.

If your question was referring to memory consolidation during stressful situations, there's a recent [meta-analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35405409/) that suggests that propranolol has limited utility in preventing traumatic memory reconsolidation.

Learning involves a complex system beyond the three neurotransmitters you've listed, one that is still being investigated. Complex systems can rarely be understood from first principles e.g. if X, then Y.


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