Withdrawal of clonidine: effects of varying dosage or duration of treatment on subsequent blood pressure and heart rate responses.

The influence of the dosage or duration of treatment on the incidence and severity of clonidine withdrawal responses was examined in normotensive rats. Clonidine (0.01 or 0.1 mg/kg i.m.) was administered either in single doses, or twice daily for 3 days or 3 weeks. Rats were then anesthetized and arterial catheters were inserted. Significant overshoots in blood pressure and heart rate, reaching peak values 16 to 26 hr after the last injection, occurred in all clonidine-treated rats, but in no control rats. The overshoots after single injections of clonidine were as great as those after suspension of sustained treatment. Moreover, withdrawal responses were as great after the low dose as they were after the 10-fold greater dose. Only plasma renin activity showed a significantly greater elevation during withdrawal of the high dose of clonidine. Since ganglionic blockade reduced blood pressures and heart rates to the same levels in rats with clonidine withdrawal hypertension as in control rats, the withdrawal overshoots appear to be nervously mediated. Neither the dosage nor the duration of treatment could be shown to determine the magnitude of the response to withdrawal of clonidine.