Prazosin works by affecting how your body interacts with REM sleep. They are pretty sure about that bit. Everything else is still a bit of guesswork, various hypotheses are out there and they are all related and they all make sense.
The point is, prazosin would work on nightmares that were not tied to a PTSD diagnosis. My understanding is that, because PTSD (and acute stress disorder) features night disturbances/nightmares as a major clinical symptom, they become the group that benefits from the use of the med.
The chemical reasons why it works aren't really different from how it would work on a person on the schizophrenic, bipolar, or depression spectrums.
It's great that it works. You should go for a general physical to make sure it's being used to help both your hypertension and your psych stuff. For blood pressure, it looks like it's usually divided up to keep it more level in your system.
Interesting point - I've been trying to get my head wrapped around how it works, and it seems that you still have the nightmares, dreams, whatever - you just don't remember them. But the dreaming shows more muffled brain activity than the brain without the prazosin. Anyway, there are lots of studies, I've been trying to work my way through them.
My worry for you,
@sonicwhite, is that there are other mental issues going on that might benefit from a different medication or combination of meds. Does your current doc think that you should be on anything for the bipolar?
