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Guanabenz: uses, dosing, side effects & brands

Guanabenz is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.

By the pharmaranks editorial teamReviewed against the FDA (openFDA label, NDC Directory & Enforcement) sourcesUpdated Jul 24, 2026How we research

Key facts

Available as
Tablet
Sold as
2 products — Guanabenz Acetate and Wytensin
Prescription?
Prescription only
Generic available?
Yes

Every guanabenz product we track (2)

Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.

Guanabenz products
#DrugRatingPharmacy pays
1
Guanabenz Acetate
Not yet rated—View →
2
Wytensin
Not yet rated—View →

Guanabenz and breastfeeding

From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.

Because no information is available on the use of guanabenz during breastfeeding, other agents may be preferred, especially while nursing a newborn or preterm infant.

Full LactMed record for guanabenz: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider instead

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised November 15, 2024. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.

What people report to the FDA about guanabenz

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 43 reports naming guanabenz, and the FDA flagged 93% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:

  • nasopharyngitis4 reports
  • cardiac failure3 reports
  • depressed level of consciousness3 reports
  • fall3 reports
  • gait disturbance3 reports
  • loss of consciousness3 reports
  • renal failure3 reports
  • renal failure acute3 reports

Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean guanabenz caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.

Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.

Related calculators

How long it stays in your system →

Frequently asked questions

Can you take guanabenz with other medicines?

It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run guanabenz against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.

What brand names is guanabenz sold under?

We track 2 guanabenz-containing products in the U.S.: Guanabenz Acetate and Wytensin. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.

What forms does guanabenz come in?

Across the brands we track, guanabenz is currently marketed as tablet, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.

Is there a generic guanabenz?

Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic guanabenz product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.

Cite this page
APA
pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Guanabenz: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/guanabenz
MLA
“Guanabenz: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/guanabenz.

We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.

Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.

Read the full FDA label for guanabenz on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.