Beta blocker takers listen up!!!!

[Blessed]

Forgive me forwells for not starting my list sooner but here goes. Has anyone been weaned off atenolol or any other beat blocker, if so, please share your experience I am so freaked out that my heart will quit I don't no what to Do. My mind won't stop racing. Please help!

[tmolf36]

I don't take mine every day I only take when needed....so I would say u will be just fine.

[u4ea]

If your heart's healthy - i.e. you've been told by your cardiologist your heart is in good health; stopping, even cold turkey, won't cause a cardiac issue! Beta blockers are often prescribed to congestive heart failure patients/recent heart attack sufferers; thus the warnings are listed per FDA (in$urance) request to combat a "I'll sue you" lawsuit happy nation.

I stopped Toprol XL (propanolol) suddenly (from one day to the next) after taking it for 5 months. I felt better after I stopped.

Again, just my opinion and experience. I'm not a doctor, but you need to use your head for these things.

[tmolf36]

Beta blockers r used for anxiety and if u don't have heart problems u don't need to worry about it. It blocks the adrenaline which in turn doesn't make ur heart beat so fast which is where we get our anxiety from. My cardiologist told me to take as needed.

[alankay]

You can usually stop atenolol with it's long half life but propranolol should tapered down if you take over say 40mg/day as you can get some rebound elevated BZp which will normalize. I'd let the doc tell you how though. Alankay

[frankzito]

My doc told me I couldn't stop once I take them, cause of the rebound. Atenolol 25mg I think he may have jumped the gun a little with that quote.

[frankzito]

I'll admit, I have felt different since taking them. Not sure I like them

[tmolf36]

I take metroprolol tartrate..25mg..I take one in the morning before I drive(having panic attacks in the car) and I am coming along w the driving.

[Stephj526]

Forgive me forwells for not starting my list sooner but here goes. Has anyone been weaned off atenolol or any other beat blocker, if so, please share your experience I am so freaked out that my heart will quit I don't no what to Do. My mind won't stop racing. Please help!

Why do you want to stop taking it? Are you having side effects, is it not working?

[acetone]

I take mine(propranolol) as needed too. I have no problem starting and quitting beta blockers.

[Blessed]

Why do you want to stop taking it? Are you having side effects, is it not working?

Yes weight retention now dizziness and changes for the worse in my anxiety and depression. It does not help my heart palps. But since trying to slowly wean off my heart has been extremely jittery shaky had a few panic attacks. Is this just the adrenalin trying to get regulated??? Again I was only on a small dose of 25mg and cut it to 12. 5???? I'm just so scared . Damn those leaflets they give you with prescriptions!!!!!

[tmolf36]

Sounds to me u r so fixated on what u read that u are causing these symptoms.. relax take deep breaths and call your doctor just for peace of mind

[ZodiacCatz]

I would slowly wean the dose down, I have been prescribed a BB as I have PVC's when im stressed and worried but I only take them when things arnt good, when I was doing my degree a few people would take beta blockers before exams and giving presentations to calm them :) I hope you are feeling beta soon x

[Perses]

I take propranolol on an as needed basis for performance anxiety -- interviews, GREs, qualifying exams, etc. I also know my sister was prescribed it a long time ago for migraine headaches. She had no idea that it was also used to combat anxiety. She didn't find it worked for her headaches, so she took herself off without any problems.

[Blessed]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to half to stop worrying or I will never recover. Mind over matter !!!!

[Allon]

I have taken inderal (proplanol) and tenormin (atenol)many times but low dosage for blood pressure. Only lately has it been used for anxiety and my personal thinking it is a placebo. You do have a sinus wave, like a bird flutter in your heart, when you forget your dosage or go off it. Again, as those have said earlier, if your heart is good reasonable shape you should be OK going off it. Higher dosage will produce more side effects from withdrawal.
Inderal is a more wide spectrum drug, hitting more sites that lower the beta response, much the same as Prozac is wide spectrum and thus has more side effects. Tenormin is site specific for the upper thorax so you might get some asthma like symptoms since some sites are in or along the lungs.
Either drug to me has been very safe. It kept my BP down along with Lisonopril. Now I have trouble with low pressure. But I would rather have that than the other way around.
I have noticed no affect on my anxiety level at all taking those drugs.

[artaud]

...Damn those leaflets they give you with prescriptions!!!!!

Patients reading those leaflets are a common cause of problems for doctors. By all means, I feel that people should be educated about the medicine they take and be part of the decision process when doctors are prescribing. But that requires some education or experience in itself.

I had the pleasure to complete 5 months of a 6 month Pharmacy Technician class, didn't finish since a much more lucrative and unrelated job opportunity arose. But I have an interest in Pharmacology.

When they do studies on Side-effects, they do double blind studies, the person distributing the medication or placebos (sugar pills) to the test subject doesn't even know if they are giving the real thing or sugar pills, as their attitude can influence the outcome.

So, half a test group takes the medication, half the placebos. But an interesting thing arises. Some of the people on the placebos are experiencing more symptoms than the people on the medication. You need to compare the two groups to get some idea of what to expect in Side-effects. If 10% of the medication group had dizziness, and 8% of the placebo group did, you could at least suppose that of the people taking the medicine, maybe 2% of them may experience dizziness, not 10%, so this symptom is not likely in our hypothetical example. But if 20% of the medicated group did and 10% of the placebo group did, it's beginning to seem more likely that the medication may be responsible.

It's not likely that you'll find a Beta-Blocker to stop the PVCs, they will slow your heart rate, decrease your blood pressure, and reduce the force of the heart as it contracts. These things can help reduce how forcefully you feel the PVCs when they occur.

There are anti-arrhythmic drugs that may eliminate the PVCs, but these can be dangerous to use as they can, if not monitored closely, cause dangerous and life threatening arrhythmias. A sane doctor would not prescribe anti-arrhythmic drugs for benign PVCs or other types of benign arrhythmias.

If you were told to discontinue the Atenolol, the doctor should have informed you if you need to taper, if not contact the doctor's office and ask for advice.