Metoprolol Withdrawal (Page 79)

i've been taking metoprolol for several years as partial treatment for high blood pressure. through diet and exercise, i've lowered my BP to the point my doctor says drop the metoprolol.

i did, 3 days ago, and i'm soooo tired, dizzy, irritable, and my vision is blurred.

is this withdrawal? how long will it last?

i remember starting this medication was terrible to get used to. it appears that stopping it is just as bad.

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I'm glad u have an answer Tabitha,but actually what is that and what causes it ?

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What I have (atrial tachycardia) is an abnormal cell in my atria (on the left side, I believe) that is sending out rapid signals instead of the normal beat causing me to have an accelerated heart rate and SVT like attacks. SVT. is found inside the sinus node, from what I understand, but mine is outside of it. It can be triggered by anything and was found on one of my holter monitors that I wore.

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Oh ok well it seems fixable that's the important thing,Did they say if something may of caused it or it just happens? And does it happen daily the episodes or just that first time when u were going outside in the storm?

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Saw my cardiologist yesterday...told me the normal withdrawal off M is three to six weeks. LOL....I am at nine weeks and there is no sign of its disappearance yet.

My holter monitor readings were OK....average of 86 Pulse.

The nurse read my pulse by touching my wrist. She calculated 76; I calculated 94.

She told me of two other patients who had troubles with beta blockers...one who wanted to hurt people while on it, the other who was depressed, while on it.

I do not think the docs get it.......

anyone experience motion sickness as a withdrawal symptom?

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Monique,

From what I understood from the cardiologist is that most any stimulants can trigger an arrhythmia but she did also say that most people that have some sort of arrhythmia are actually born with it but don't notice it until their bodies can't manage it anymore for whatever reason and then the symptoms and attacks start to appear. For me, she believes it was the change of my medication ultrams switched to tramadol (same thing, ones just generic) and it being raised to a higher dose that brought on my initial attack. My attacks got much worse after I started the metoprolol and have calmed down majorly since I've been off of it but I still get then occasionally. My heart rate is just always around 110-120 unless I am laying down for at least 20min. And sometimes I even wake up to it racing slightly but I have been on Xanax for about a month and it calms my heart down to a decent pace and keeps me from getting worked up and making it worse. I was skeptical and kind of bummed to start another medication while trying to get off of the metoprolol but it actually helped and my dr also agreed to help me wean down when I'm ready and also offered me counseling to get through the withdrawal process when it's time, so I decided to take them and they have made a huge difference. I only get an attack every couple days or so but the constant high heart rate is all of the time.

Matt,

Have you been to an actual electrophysiologist or just a normal cardiologist? I had several tests done and went through a lot, even seeing cardiologists and all it took was for one electrophysiologist to read one of my holter monitors to find the problem and prepare a solution. Also, I never had motion sickness while I was on metoprolol but I did develop sudden motion sickness, especially in vehicles, right before I started having my attacks.

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Matt, about that part about 3 to 6 weeks, doctors don't know too much about this.

In the last 7 weeks I am having huge problems with adjusting to a last tiny dose of 0,10 Mg of Nebivolol (I have dropped from 0,20 Mg to 0,10 Mg of Nebivolol. That is around 4 Mg to 2 Mg in Metoprolol's dosage). That is a tiny dose and only a small drop in the dosage, but I am having: elevated HR a few hours per day (it is getting better and closer to normal numbers with each new week, though), nausea all the time, pain in abdomen and all around the heart, lungs, neck, lower abdomen (sometimes I have a feeling that someone is sitting on my heart and lungs for hours), feeling sick/flu like on some days, feeling slightly breathless on some days, inability to speed up during (slow) walking on some days etc. While on some days I feel more or less fine. As the time goes by, there is more and more good days and bad episodes are shorter and shorter.

Docs would just reply: that's impossible. That is a low dose, you shouldn't feel anything or the symptoms should be gone in a few days.
Well, I was taking BBs only for a year and half and I am way younger than you (in 30s), I can only imagine how it must be for you after 20 years on them and being much older.

So, once again, just remember that your heart was pumping with 70-80% of it's strength and pace during the last 20 years, and now you are suddenly forcing it to pump with 100% of strength. So, 20 years of a deconditioned heart (due to Beta blockers) should be cured after 3-6 weeks? Your heart as a muscle surely needs some time to get back in a shape.
(Again, just imagine your legs if you hadn't run at all for 20 years.
Would you get in shape for sports suddenly after 3 weeks of training?)

Imo, 3-6 Months would be a much better estimation, and even that is a huge "if".

You can listen to docs who say that a withdrawal is not a big deal, or you can listen to your body and to people on forums who experienced the same problems.
I am pretty sure that 99% of those docs never used BBs and that they especially hadn't quit them after 1-2-20 years of use.

Plus, I have found this article on one medical site about Beta blockers and their effects on muscles and activity:
beta-Adrenoceptor antagonists influence the metabolic responses in man at rest and during exercise. Impaired working capacity and muscular fatigue have been reported in patients on beta-blockers and this could be due to an altered substrate supply to the muscles. The results from several studies show that the main effect of beta-blockade on metabolism is decreased lipolysis, with less fat available to the muscles. This results in an increased carbohydrate demand to maintain an unchanged aerobic metabolism, and liver and muscle glycogen stores are more rapidly depleted. beta-blockade also results in decreased lactate release from the muscles, probably due to a membrane effect and/or changed perfusion. It is concluded that beta-blockade a) decreases fat metabolism in the muscle, which secondarily increases the use of carbohydrates during exercise, resulting in earlier hypoglycaemia and/or depletion of muscle glycogen with reduction of the working capacity, b) impairs lactate transport from the muscle but does not cause lactate accumulation within the muscle which could be responsible for muscular fatigue.

So, Matt, your body was altered because of BBs for 20 years, and you had 100s of altered mechanisms in your bloodstream, all cells in your body, in majority of organs, muscles etc.
And that should be fixed over 3 weeks?

That's impossible.

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Bob and Tabitha,

I agree....the regular cardiologist just told me that my average heart rate was 87 while on the holter and that there were no irregularities.

The motion sickness is peculiar in that I have never had that since trying to read in a car as a kid....

Today at Day 65 after several days without nausea except for the trip to the cardiologist, I have some this AM, accompanied by some flushing or warm feeling in my face and head.

I started trying to walk more in the house as I had a shot in an arthritic knee last week. I notice that I have been sleeping better as I am more active, but I still fear driving a car or going for a sustained walk.

I do notice that there are periods, not necessarily whole days, when I feel pretty good. My wife thinks the nausea is due to something else, but I do not think so....I take Prilosec twice a day and it really does not work on this nausea....and it is usually accompanied by other withdrawal symptoms like slight headache, some sinus congestion, flushing and just an overall ill feeling.

I am going to see a GI doc, but That is to satisfy my wife's worry that there is something more dangerous lurking.

How are your nauseas reacting.

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Well what I'd the purpose of metoprolol cause my doc gave it to me for nerve pain in hands and oh my goodness nerve pain in leg due to so many epidurals and any thing they could think of.I have had nerves burned also but this medicine didn't help with this pain.Any suggestions to help nerve pain I could tell my doc please the pain is dibilitation thank you

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Linda Gail

Metoprolol could "calm" your nerves, but for nerve pain there are two drugs I know of:
Lyrica and Cymbalta.....be careful however, because both have serious side effects like depression and anxiety.

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The two meds you mentioned cymbaltaand lyrics I think I have depression and anxiety can't get my pcp to write xanaxx for it I was originally given it when my hperthrohroi was diagnosed because my heart beat so fast I would wake up feeling as if I was dying and having them during the day.I have depression due to having half my breast taken off.I see young ppl at doctors and they get their meds no problem but I'm going on60 yrs old and should at least stay out of pain and these panic attacks is not living now.

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Matt, about your good hours, it means that you are slightly improving.
At first it starts with 3-4-5 hours on some days (not every day), then it starts to be a few hours every day etc.
The same as bad periods: at first you are feeling bad 24/7. After some time, you have 4 good hours and 20 bad hours, and eventually it goes to 12:12, then 16:8 etc.

Of course, you will still have bad episodes, for example, you can feel good for 3-4 days and you'll think that it is getting way better, and then for unknown reason you can have horrible 5 days in a row again.
But then, you'll again have 3-4 good days and the next time you'll have only 2-3 bad days after that.
It goes up and down all the time, but on larger samples, each new week is slightly better and better (on average when you sum all problems and their strength).

So, if you'll suddenly experience a few horrible days after this, don't fall into a depression, these ups and downs happen to all of us.

About nausea, this is my 2nd attempt of quitting BBs and I have tried to quit 2 different BBs in each attempt and I had nausea both times.
So, nausea is 100% from a withdrawal.

Also, Beta blockers mostly block B1 receptors in heart, but these drugs are not 100% cardioselective and they are blocking 100s of other actions related to B1 and B2 receptors in our body. So, BBs interfere both with B1 and B2 receptors.
(BBs mostly try to block only actions of B1 receptors, but the medicine isn't that advanced yet, so they are blocking lots of unwanted B2 mechanisms also).

For example, these are some mechanisms controlled by B2 receptors, which are altered by all Beta blockers, like:
1. uterus, Gi tract, urinae muscle, bronchi, blood vessels, tremor, glucose mechanisms
2. heart and vessels
3. eye
4. digestive system, insulin secretion from pancreas
5. Inhibit histamine-release from mast cells.
Increase protein content of secretions from lacrimal glands.
Increase renin secretion from kidney.
Receptor also present in cerebellum.
Bronchiole dilation (targeted while treating asthma attacks)

So, basically, while taking BBs, all of these mechanisms are altered to some extent and to some percentage.
And when we quit BBs, these altered mechanisms are trying to get back to their original state (before BBs).

So, about nausea, Beta blockers have some impact on digestion mechanisms, and digestion system is also experiencing a withdrawal from BBs.

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Thanks for your experience and support, Bob

You must have been taking extensive notes on your own withdrawals. I had a decent day yesterday. Got on my Apple Laptop for the first time in months and was actually able to do some tax estimating for the 9/15 due date.

I started a journal beginning on Day 42.

I have been sleeping better which is a plus, but I woke up very anxious today.

My PCP says she does not want to fill my lorazepam anymore, that that should be supervised by a psychiatrist. Well it was my last psychiatrist that was experimenting on me with a switch to atenolol that kicked this whole awful experience off..

Day 67......they just do not get this...but obviously there are quite a few out there who probably are questioning their sanity who did not find this board and its fellowship for beta blocker withdrawals.

I surveyed my Facebook friends, mostly from high school, but some from college, and there were quite a few of them on metoprolol, one or two, on atenolol, and all of them seemed to have no problems. One did have a shortness of breath problem, another who knew when she had missed one dose, because the palpitations would commence immediately.

Headache seems to be a common withdrawal symptom....and I have had more of those in the last 67 days than in my last 30 years.

It seems most doctors just memorize the script (pun intended) for X or for Y and when an unusual problem like ours comes along, they cannot improvise, so it is up to us to handle our problem ourselves.

This board has been invaluable, but everyone here has to recognize that everyone of us is different and everyone's withdrawal or experience on beta blockers is not the same, although there are a lot of commonalities that we can draw upon.

If I can make it through this, than so should all of you. Keep fighting for your old life.

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For those who are starting to feel well again or are feeling well again, what was the most significant change for you, i.e. what symptom(s) started to disappear or alleviate....quality of sleep, ability to move without worry, nausea/headache ease off or were there changes to your symptoms, something replacing something else?

I know we are all different, but anxiety seems to be the common denominator from what I have read.

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Just getting on here to say that I am currently in a hospital bed at this moment after having an ablation done today. My electrophysiologist said I should be between 85%-100% better and she highly thinks I won't need another procedure, but only time will tell. So no more beta blockers for this lady! (I am 26 by the way) I'm about two weeks off with thrho of Xanax and will hopefully be weaning that next. Thanks to everyone in beret that has helped me heal through the withdrawals and rebounds. A word of caution to any one being put on a beta blocker for tachycardia, I would see an electrophysiologist and go from there. I didn't need beta blockers, I needed an ablation. And now I can go back to my normal life in 10 days.

Matt, Anxiety was definitely the number one thing for me during my withdrawal which is where I came to be on Xanax. Most people on here say not to start a new habit that you're going to have to withsta form again but I believe if you talk to your dr first, you might have luck. I took the risk of addiction and started taking them because I made a plan with my dr to be monitored on my weaning and even start counseling to help get through it. (Getting more help from Drs with benzo withdrawals and not the crappy metoprolol they put you on. Ridiculous) I actually add metoprolol to my drug allergen list anytime they ask. I will never take that stuff again!

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I never noticed anxiety. Guess I was lucky. I am on cymbalta also though for depression and anxiety.

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Matt, about symptoms of a withdrawal, I am still in the process. But for me, it was during both times something like this:
Biggest symptoms and pain: high heart rate (and inability to walk/do any activity due to that in the first weeks) for 30-40-ish days and huge anxiety over everything during that period. They were both like: 100% of their strength in the first week, then 90-95% (slightly weaker) in the 2nd week, then 80-90% in the 3rd week (with some days at 100% again), then 70, 60, 50% in upcoming weeks (again with up and down episodes, like a few days at 50% of pain, then 3 days at 100%, then a few days at 50, 70, 50, 70, then 100 again, then 50, then nothing, then 100, then 50, then nothing, then 50 etc.) It goes up and down in strength of pain all the time, but it gets better and better when you look at a larger sample. (It was like 100%, 100%, 90%, 100%, 100% in the first week, and let's say 50%, 50%, 100%, 100%, 50%, 70%, 50% in the 6th week, more or less. So, it is getting better slowly when you look at previous weeks.) I had the same feeling with anxiety also. It goes up and down all the time, but the same as with elevated HR and inability to walk, it gets (slowly) better and better with each new week.

About other symptoms, I had only dizziness in the beginning, then it just goes away suddenly after 2-3-4 weeks, and sometimes randomly returns back for 1 day or for a few hours. Also, during the worst time (first 3-4-5 weeks) I would have nausea in the afternoon (it would go away by the evening, no matter what I would eat or do, for some reason.) Also, during the worst period, like first 3-4-5-6 weeks, I would have some strange pain in the whole body around heart and lungs, as if someone is sitting on you or as if someone is pulling your organs in a different direction all day long (like: someone is trying to pull your heart on one side, and someone else is trying to pull your lungs and organs in the opposite direction. As if somethings is trying to tear apart your organs inside of you. And you have that feeling of a strange pain around those organs and in all your muscles in that area all day long, but again the pain is the strongest in the afternoon, and usually goes away around the evening. It doesn't hurt late at night, strange.) Plus, I had a flu like symptoms and I was tired/exhausted during the worst period (like first 3-4-5 weeks). Nausea, this pain/tear apart feeling in the whole upper body and a flu-like symptoms would disappear after a few weeks. Like from 100%, to 50% and suddenly to 0%. Of course, there are still random days, like 1-2 days in 7 days when that pain comes back, but only for a few hours and it doesn't hurt as much as in the first weeks of a withdrawal.

So, in my case: high HR, anxiety=the biggest problems. It gets better over time, but these 2 persist the longest in my case, even for 2-3-4 Months and they have ups and downs all the time.

Other symptoms like dizziness, nausea, pain in the upper body and flu-like symptoms last shorter, like only during the worst period of 3-4-5 weeks and they disappear almost totally (while higher HR and anxiety persist for much longer and they lose their strength much slower).

There were some other, random new problems like headache, some troubles with too slow breathing, slight tremor in hands, numbness in feet from time to time, dry eyes, elevated BP, but these symptoms would randomly come and go and would last only for a few hours on some days (and they would come and go again on another random day with no logical reason).

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Jules,

I assume you are through the withdrawal..what symptoms did you have, if not anxiety? How long before you were feeling back to normal?

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I never really had any withdraws from the metropolol. They started me on atenolol and my problems stopped. The head itching and skin felt like ants crawling on it. I started taking the atenolol and was taking 2 per day and was only to be taking 1. Corrected this and all is well now.

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Thanks again, Bob

My nausea comes sometimes with talking on the phone loudly to my Dad who is hard of hearing. Any real exertion adds to the anxiety......I have had wicked knee pain and back pain, cortisone shots did not help, and do not know whether to attribute it to withdrawal or something else like arthritis.

I am having a really bad day today, Day 70 with anxiety and pain...I took a mild muscle relaxer last night to some, but I am thinking it is adding to anxiety and depression today.

But then I have twenty years of taking M to shake off and read about someone (on this board) on it for 15 years that had only a few weeks of withdrawal....

I wish all of you the best; this is tougher than anything in my experience, including open heart surgery right hip replacement and a Cancer surgery.....because of its length, strength and its one step forward, two steps back.....I am beginning to believe a lot of my side effects over the years were misdiagnosed as depression and anxiety from some other cause, but I am hoping that when this does subside in a few months, I will feel better than I can ever remember....twenty years back I had a mild heart attack and they introduced this drug into my life, but for way too long.

And now I have a reenergized heart from a triple bypass, which was never allowed to work at its full capacity.

One day at a time...one hour at a time....this is difficult.

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Matt, elevated HR, high BP and tachycardias from withdrawal are the most dangerous.
If your elevated HR while resting is getting better, that's the most important, you are improving.

About anxiety and nausea, it will get better, plus they aren't life threatening.
They are annoying, but they are minor problems compared to heart rate/blood pressure related withdrawal symptoms.

So, imo, you should worry mostly about your previous elevated HR problems.
When it will get lower, you will be able to walk and do more activity and automatically you will lower your anxiety little by little by returning to normal life (with those minor activities each new day).

So, anxiety should get better in two ways: first, it will get lower naturally as the time (withdrawal) goes by, like with all of us. Second, with light physical activity and lower resting heart rate, you will be happier, less stressed and scared and a part of anxiety will also go away with each new day/week.

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