Does caffeine have any distinct biological effects to adrenaline?
Adrenaline usually is a "panicking response" and should, as far as I understand it, supresses any feelings of tiredness. However, someone I know has agoraphobia, which when triggered releases a lot of adrenaline, yet that person still feels tired and needs to consume caffeine.
I imagine 2 possible explanations; either caffeine:
simply adds a placebo effect or
works somewhat different to adrenaline
My research so far has shown no studies or articles regarding the relationship between caffeine and adrenaline.
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According to a case report about a 24-year old woman (PubMed Central), in agoraphobia, during a panic attack, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, which results in adrenaline release, which causes symptoms, such as:
...pounding heart, shortness of breath nervousness, dizziness, losing
control on himself for few minutes.
So, from symptoms lasting few minutes, you can conclude that adrenaline is acting for few minutes and not all the time.
According to one 2005 study, caffeine stimulates adrenaline release, but
adrenaline alone does not account for the effects of caffeine and
additional mechanisms must be involved.
From the above, one might think that caffeine could help you stay alert despite already being stimulated by adrenaline from anxiety.
But, according to one 2015 review article:
moderate-to-high consumers develop tolerance to caffeine and only low
or nonconsumers can eventually benefit from an acute administration.
In conclusion, one who drinks a lot of coffee on a daily basis, will probably develop tolerance to caffeine, in which case the wakening effect would be a placebo effect.
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