A drug prescribed to veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder nightmares has been recalled for high traces of a chemical that could be cancerous.
Food and Drug Administration recalled half a million bottles of Prazosin, the Associated Press first reported last week. Prazosin is typically prescribed to help patients lower their blood pressure, but the drug is also prescribed for PTSD-related nightmares.
FDA notices issued late last month show recalls of the drug produced by two medication distributors: 100-pill bottles from Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and 20-pill cartons from Amerisource Health Services LLC. The FDA orders note that tests found nitrosamine impurities above the “acceptable intake limit” and could be potentially cancer-causing.
Pete Kasperowicz, a spokesperson for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said the agency “has ceased distributing the affected batches of this pharmaceutical and is in the process of informing veterans about this recall.”
VA officials did not say how many veterans could be affected by the recall for either PTSD or high blood pressure use.
PTSD and Blood Pressure use
PTSD diagnoses are widespread among VA patients. Of the 5.8 million veterans served by the VA health system in fiscal year 2024, nearly 2.2 million were diagnosed with PTSD, including about 14% of men and 24% of women. A study on trauma-related nightmares found that 15% of veterans, or about 1 in 6, experience trauma-related nightmares.
Jess Calohan, a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner who treats veterans in the private sector and prescribes Prazosin, told Task & Purpose that the drug is “widely used” within the VA. Calohan, a combat veteran who retired from the Army in 2017, studied the drug as a treatment for soldiers deployed to Iraq who suffered from trauma nightmares.
Because of that research, the drug is even included in the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense’s Clinical Practice Guidelines for drug interventions for PTSD.
Calohan said a “vast majority of the time” veterans with PTSD also experience nightmares. Calohan said he only prescribes the drug to patients if the condition is impacting their sleep, like causing them to wake up multiple times or stay awake for over an hour each night.
Calohan said pharmacies are typically a patient’s primary source of information for any drug supply issues, including recalls. While there’s no formal requirement to tell patients about recalls, he said it’s a “professionalism issue,” and important for trust between patients and their providers.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think a lot of people know about this,” he said. “I mean, just like with any other medications that have been recalled, once it gets out there, then patients can take an active role in reaching out to their providers and pharmacies and figuring out.”
