Metoprolol Withdrawal (Page 94)

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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Congrats on your success, Jeff, but Clonazapam? Benzos can cause long-term complications.

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I am also on lexapro and want to start working down towards getting off but it's hard. Anxiety hit me really hard when I got off since I went cold turkey. I need to start working out so I don't have to depend on pills to lower my bp. But i am glad I am off metoprolol

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I have been on this since last year an recently went from 25mg to 50 been super lightheaded an just feeling wierd i have heart palpatations from being on med that i was allergic too

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Hi my name is Alex and was prescribed metoprolol tartrate 25 mg for fast heart rate. Since i started taking it in the beginning of dec 2017 I had issues with sinus tachycardia.
A cardiologist plus a lot of er trips did studies on me and said that my heart is fine. But i'm sensitive like many here. I have no support from anyone. Well my mother is always there for me. currently weaning off of it. taking half a pill in the morning and 6 mg in the night. (19 mg) Gonna do 3 weeks of 19 mg and then maybe go down to half a pill only in the morning. I learned the hard way that 2 weeks of 25 mg and a week of 19 mg was not enough to wean down. The 1st day that I went to half a pill I ended with a sinus tachycardia of 180 during the night. Should i stay at 19 mg for more than 3 weeks? while my body adjusts? before going to only a half?

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Re: Alexander (# 1864)

You know I have the same problem, at night my heart just starts to beat fast for no reason it wakes me up in the middle of the night sometimes, I also have irregular heartbeat from time to time, last Saturday my heart was beating off beat, kind of scared me, but after around 45 minutes it went away, so I know what you're going through, I found out what really helps me a lot is magnesium citrate I picked this up from Whole Foods Market it's in a brown bottle with a gold top magnesium citrate, I think this will really help you, God bless you my friend

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Re: Anthony (# 1865)

Hi Anthony. I used to use magnesium but after a while it gives me the diarrhea. Something else i noticed now is that I get some specific days with no fast heart rate. From Wednesday to maybe Friday/Saturday. Then from Sunday to 1 am wed I get fast heart rate. A pharmacists told me to pick the day is slowest to use less off it. while taking 19 mg my heart rate would go as high as 133. Used to go higher while taking 25 mg, around 165 every 2 days or so. I might take 6 mg on the morning and 6 mg on the night. Hopefully that will make it easier for me to lessen the effect of the rebound tachy. I might get motherwort on the 28th of this month.

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Re: Alexander (# 1866)

Forgot to add the bottle of magnesium that i have is called triple calm, is Mg Taurate, Mg Glycinate, Mg Malate 150mg

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I was on Metrop for 5 years. This last year has been the very worst. It put my BP up into sroke level. Many visits to ER but all test check out ok. Started to investigate Metrop on my own and found that I had all the side effects PLUS the increase in BP. 5 months ago started to take myself off. WARNING - GO SLOW. I was on 50mg twice a day. I am now totally off, but it is no fun. I think I should have stretch it longer but there is no way I am going back on it. I have kept my doctor informed and thankfully he is very supportive Suffer depression, heart palpitations, chest pains but they are getting less severe The info in this conversation site is great. Very helpful

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Re: LK (# 1868)

Gonna try and taper a bit more. I did 3 weeks of 19mg. Not gonna lie, I'm scared. And sometimes depressed to the point of thinking about suicide. I'm just tired.

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Day 3 of 12.5 mg metoprolol no rebound tachy yet. But maybe tonight. Last time i tried to wean from 19 mg i had a sinus tachy of 180. Wondering if motherwort can slow down the rebound tachy or not. Also have Thyroid Calming Herb but no idea if that could work.

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It's Friday and I did the taper to take less on Monday from 19 mg to 12.5. So far not bad. I had a rebound hypertension of 190/127, no symptoms, increased heart rate not bad yet. Taking half a pill only during the day.

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So far not bad still at 12.5 mg a day for now. Heart rate at 81. I feel much better. Going to see cardiologist on Thursday. I did get some palpitations on Monday morning with a heart rate of 125. I wonder if the worst is to come once i taper down to 6 mg.

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It's 3/16/2018 Friday, currently taking 12.5 mg. Things have normalized. I'm gonna taper down to 6 mg next week. So far I'm ok.

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Hi, I’ve gotten so much out of this thread that I feel I need to post my experience in the hope it will help others. This thread is the best source of info I could find after many web searches about metoprolol withdrawal. All searches and keyword combinations kept leading me back to here. I’ve also searched the scientific literature and only found a few research papers from the early 80s on very limited studies, where only a handful of patients were monitored over only a coupe weeks after stopping metoprolol (and other drugs). I would wager the drug companies have a lot of data on this but as we all know, there’s no money in letting people know how to stop using their products. I could see them even suppress that info. Another benefit of this thread was to see the long term improvement of some… Jimbo, Lauren, Toonces and many others. There is literally no other data out there that I can find about the withdrawal process!

I’ll first say that I think the drug interacts differently with people. It must depend on many factors such as weight, age, metabolism, diet, etc. I started taking metoprolol succinate extended release (XR) about 6 months ago when I was having episodes of high blood pressure and pulse and had several panic stricken trips to the ER. All diagnostics were normal and one doc prescribed a diuretic, which I took for a few days until I saw a cardiologist. The stess evaluation was ok and he switched me to metoprolol succinate XR and prescribed 50 mg. Thank goodness I decided only to take 25 mg after advice from family. I also researched that it lasts only 20 hours, not 24 hours despite the once per day prescription. I felt so bad that I decided to split the dosage into half (12.5 mg) in the morning and half (12.5 mg) in the evening. That meant cutting the 50 mg pills into quarters, which is difficult and no doubt led to fairly unequal dosage over those days, it was before I even knew about a pill cutter.

It took days to weeks to get used to, but I gradually settled into better BP readings, so much so that after about 4.5 months and reading about the long term side effects, I decided to drop the dosage. The recurring theme on here is to wean ***slowly***. I got my doc to prescribe 25 mg pills, the smallest available at least where I am, and I use a pill cutter and industrial blade with a scale that reads to the nearest 0.01 g., 0.001 g would be better but they’re very expensive. I first tried cutting the dosage half and did not feel well at all, BP and pulse way up, scary episodes at various times of day or night but especially 2 or 3 hours after going to bed. So I went to 9 x 2 = 18 mg per day for two weeks. The first few days were tough but it gradually it got better. Still some episodes after a week. 2nd week it settled down more, gradually. So I then switched to 6 x 2 = 12 mg per day after 14 days of 18 mg. I found that was the hardest step: more intense episodes, some chest pain and feeling of anxiety just like described on this thread. It gradually lessened until after 2 weeks, I went to 4 x 2 = 8 mg per day. More of the same but not as bad as the 18 mg to 12 mg step.

Two weeks later, I reduced further, first by trying to skip the evening dosage. Not good, I felt bad with high BP, rate and headache as some have mentioned here. I think each reduction should be 25% at most, no matter what dosage one is on. Maybe even lower % drop would be better, or if one waited more than 2 weeks or both. Anyways, I first tried 4 + 2 = 6 mg per day but felt like it was a roller coaster so several days ago I went to 2 + 2 = 4 mg per day. The first night felt bad with headache, thirst, somewhat higher BP and only one episode the first night. Things have been ok since then, I’m cautiously optimistic but am not out of the woods yet. The dosage is so low that maybe I can drop it entirely next week. I worry about the first days at 0 mg as many have reported here. I will update again.

From what I experienced, I would say that yes, even 4 mg has an effect. Despite what all the docs say, including my own, that one can just go cold turkey. And having said all the above, my wife through all of this has said it’s all in my head. Criticizing me or making fun of me whenever she sees me cutting up pills or taking BP measurements. That is toxic to live with and I’m still mad about it. I even left at one point for several days over it. If it weren’t for children, I’m not sure I’d come back to be around that negativity. This whole process is stressful enough, so I sympathize with a couple people on here that have mentioned the same. And envy a couple that have mentioned their spouses are supportive. Don’t let family, friends or any doc or nurse tell you that it’s psychological, there’s a real effect that occurs with getting off this drug.

One last thing I want to mention and not seen discussed here is to watch one’s sodium! It seems obvious in retrospect but only in the last week or two I noticed that my episodes followed salty snacks or meals. I’ve never been sodium sensitive before but maybe this metoprolol has caused it. I wonder if it will stay with me down the road but then it’s healthy to watch sodium anyways so I won’t ever go back. So I’m always watching sodium content and not eating too much, especially restaurant food. One other thing… potassium and magnesium do help, thank you to this thread again for that info!

I hope someone finds this helpful. No doubt it’s harder to wean off higher doses taken for longer amounts of time, this stuff is toxic. Good luck to all.

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Re: Bubba (# 1874)

Thank you for posting. I’ve been on this poison for 3 months for SVT and Bp. I was start at 50mg once a day. Felt like a zombie and cut to 25 after 2 weeks. Started really bad GErd and dropped to 12.5. My palpitations have started back and my anxiety is through the roof. I’m going to my cardiologist tomorrow to get off of this. My worry are the palpitations. They are so scarey. Last night I woke up at 12,2 and 4 with my heart pounding. I can only eat toast and oatmeal. I’m so angry I was given this medicine

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Re: Joyce (# 235)

I have had the same craving since being put on Metoprolol. Prior to being on it, I ate mostly vegetarian with some fish several days a week, for the past few years. I have been craving red meat and eating it daily for the past two weeks. Have only been on Metoprolol for 2 months and thought the side effects were symptoms of illness, didn't realize they were side effects until this weekend. Now trying to taper off and symptoms are much worse. Palpitations, headaches off and on (instead of daily and constant), anxiety, depression and all the things everyone is saying here. My doctor completely dismissed all my complaints about symptoms and basically said I didn't understand how my body would respond to medicines and it takes a while to adjust, etc., blah,blah. I wish I would have realized sooner and started the tapering process much sooner. Seeing a new cardio doc tomorrow and continuing to taper until I'm over this terrible ordeal.

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Last night my anxiety was high, I took some l-theanine. currently taking 6 mg metoprolol but I have a feeling that i'm gonna have a bad time soon. I also had some rebound high blood pressure last night. It's hard to stay positive after the 180 sinus tachycardia. I got the green light from cardio to wean off of it. In case you are wondering the 180 tachy happened on the 1st try from weaning. Somehow things are looking better now but after that experience its hard to forget.

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My last post did not went trough so again: Last night my anxiety was high and i took some l-theanine. Had some rebound high blood pressure, slight increase heart rate. currently taking 6 mg metoprolol. When i tried to wean off on the 1st try I had a rebound tachycardia of 180. It was a sinus tachycardia. I get depressed and sometimes think that my end is coming. I'm always expecting something bad to happen in other words expect the worst and hope for the best. Also taking magnesium ,around 400 mg in the form of pills,broccoli and shakes.

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Peg (# 1876) --

Hi Peg, very sorry to hear of your troubles. Unfortunately I spoke too soon and had more trouble the very same evening I posted my message. Going from 8 mg to 4 mg was too drastic. Had very high BP that night and woke up in the middle of that night with fast pulse for maybe 5 minutes. From what I've seen others describe on this thread, it takes a few days after lowering the dosage for the bad effects to manifest. So I decided the very next day to go up to 6 mg and have felt better. I'm still having some spikes in BP and pulse but nowhere near as bad. It looks like it takes a while (a couple weeks? not sure yet) to acclimate to the new lower dosage and the bad effects gradually get better (too gradually, it's horrible!). I'm going to remain at 6 mg for another week or until I feel better, then drop real slow. Thankfully I have a better scale that can measure to nearest mg, so I can choose the dosage! They really need to provide smaller mg pills and warn people to wean slowly. This stuff is toxic and leaves a mark on the body's many processes even though the drug is out of the system in x hours or days. My cardiologist just laughed that it's probably a placebo effect but I'm not buying it. Maybe some can go cold turkey but not everybody. Unfortunately the companies only want to make money with their large dosage 100/50/25 mg pills, their goal is for people to remain on their meds indefinitely.

Good luck and I hope you feel better.

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Re: Bubba (# 1879)

Hope you get good results. Today is the first day I’ve skipped a dose. I’m hoping tonight is kind to me. Thx for responding

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