Talk:Methyldopa

Methyldopa, in its active metabolite form, leads to increased alfa-2 receptor-mediated inhibition of SNS (centrally and peripherally), allowing PSNS tone to increase. Such activity leads to a decrease in Total Peripheral Resistance (TPR) and Cardiac Output (C.O.).

All drugs in this class can cause rebound hypertension due to an up-regulation of alfa-2 receptors while under the influence of the drug. If the drug is abruptly withdrawan, the "original" as well as "new" receptors become available and cause a severe reaction to the "normal" SNS activity (which is usually in excess). In other words, the SNS typically releases more NE than is needed to activate receptors (leading to a sustained response), and extra receptors leads to an over-response (in this case mediated by alfa-2 receptors leading to vascular smooth muscle CONSTRICTION = rebound hypertension). (That's bad.)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 16:30, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Corrections and Clean up
The pharmacology section of this article needed some clean up. An important correction was changing the suggestion that methyldopa causes "hypotension" to the statement that it can lower blood pressure. There were unnecessary abbreviations and references to trade names.Verytas (talk) 17:03, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Another editor reverted my description of clinical trial. This seems like a routine recording of an uncontroversial fact. It included no medical claims. This doesn't seem to fall under the "secondary source" umbrella. Why revert? Lfstevens (talk) 07:50, 21 February 2018 (UTC)