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← Return to Experience with amiodarone?
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What people never seem to mention when they say how "terrible" amiodarone is, is that side-effects are strongly dependent upon the dosage. My mother has been on 100 mg amio daily for 24 years for paroxysmal afib. She has had NO side effects in 24 years--and she has never had another atrial fib episode! It completely controls her afib. She gets the recommended blood tests every 6 months for liver, lungs, etc. When people take 400-800 mg daily, you can imagine how much more medication is in their bloodstream--no wonder they are getting long-term bad effects. Acc. to my cardiologists, amiodarone is considered the best anti-arrhythmic for atrial fib, and they recommend it to me if flecainide ever stops being so effective for my paroxysmal AF episodes. My cardio's are adamant not to be afraid of amio at a low dose, 100-200 mg per day; and if any side effects began to show up, you would stop and go onto other options. Hope this somewhat balances all of the negative information. Prayers for your heart...
Replies to "What people never seem to mention when they say how "terrible" amiodarone is, is that side-effects..."
@drdianeschneider
I think the bottom line with amiodarone is it is a very strong drug and does what it is suppose to do. It is very well researched and documented over decades now regarding toxicity. Testing is required when on it because it can cause toxicity.
Being on low dose of any medciation lowers the risk of side affects. I see even though she is on low dose she does blood test every 6 months looking for toxicity. Hats off to her doctors for doing this.
I will say if the medication stopped all her AFIB that had to be a great benefit to her and reduced her anxiety stress drastically. Stress and anxiety can add to having AFIB and VFIB. I had to do eye exams for several years after I got off amiodarone as one of the side affects was eye damage.
It was the emergency room that put me on amiodarone not my Mayo HF cardiologist or my Mayo EP.
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I greatly appreciate your input. My EP is now recommending amio 200mg to replace Flecainide 100 mg BID. My quality of life is good but I have had a recent increase in palpitations that seem to be PVCs from a junctional source. This has been going on for 2 years. 2 ablations have failed to eliminate these symptoms but I can ignore them much of the time except when resting quietly. I am a 73yo male who exercises everyday 1-2 hours.