Had a bad reaction and lots of side effects from taking Carvedilol.

Posted by arethah @arethah, Apr 5 10:33pm

After taking Carvedilol for 3 weeks I experienced severe headaches, eye spasms and electric like shock all over my body. After 2 trips to Urgent Care and 1 to the ER, 2 CT Scans and 1 MRI, all showing nothing. I stopped taking it cold turkey and 3 weeks off the med, I am still having terrible headaches and eye spasms and just don’t feel well. Wondering how long before all the symptoms will subside.

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That sounds terrible. Are they listed side effects? My dad takes it twice a day and hasn’t had any issues. What did your doctor say?

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I would suggest talking to your cardiologist. I have been on carvedilol since 2006, 25 mg twice a day.

When I first took it with Entresto really brought me down energey wise, blood pressure dropped, and pule rate dropped. But all that went away about a month after starting it. Was told these symptoms would be happening and would diminish with time as body adapted to them.

I, and just an opinion not medical advice, your symptoms do not sound like side affects of carvedilol especially as you have disontinued it and still have it. Best advise see your cardiologist ASAP.

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I was given Carvedilol in hospital when a team of doctors were trying out new meds for my problematic blood pressure. Unfortunately, they gave me a 25 mg dose right away. Three hours later, I coded and was revived just in time. No new meds at full strength for me, EVER.

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As the others have said, I’d definitely contact your cardiologist. My dad was prescribed 25 mg and was getting headaches, dizziness, and orthostatic hypotension, which are all side effects.

My mom is an RN and she switched to taking his BP and if it was below a certain cutoff, she didn’t give it to him.

A few months later, he has a first appointment with a cardiologist who prescribed half a 25 mg tablet to be taken if his BP is above a certain amount. I know that’s not always practical, and he ends up taking it most of the time, but it stopped the side effects.

Yours sound more severe though so maybe there’s a different medication you might tolerate better instead?

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Different folks react to common drugs differently. A common anti-arrhythmic drug is Flecainide. Most do quite well on it, while others react very poorly and have to be taken off it immediately. This could be what we're dealing with here, just a different drug. I'm sorry to see you suffer this way, and I'm sure you're anxious to have your condition improved. A suggested by jc76, the close proximity in time to the two events might just be coincidental, and there is in fact something else afoot. You need to keep your physician friends close on this one and keep them apprised of the developments, but mostly about how it makes you feel and the adverse effects the symptoms have on your wellbeing.

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