Side Effects of Metoprolol?

Posted by wigreenthumb @wigreenthumb, Jan 18, 2019

Just started this med for spiking blood pressure in evening. Has anyone experienced severe stomach pain from this, or insomnia? I take with food, and the pain started almost 18 hours later!

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@anacarel2018

I m 28 years old female no health issue other than my blood pressure run low sometimes 2 months ago I started experiencing tachycardia out of where I was at the hospital multiple times got a lot tests done bloodwork’s and heart test but everything was good nothing show up so I was referred to see a cardiologist the cardiologist did a heart monitor for 3 days I was wearing this and it was reciting all my heart activities I also had a echocardiogram the echocardiogram showed everything good the heart monitor showed a sinus tachycardia and a early beat but cardiologist said nothing wrong so nothing is wrong with my heart my question is my cardiologist prescribed me metoprolol XL 50 mg cutting it in half 25mg on the morning 8: am and 25 mg at night 8:pm I been taking this for 2 months but the side effects are so bad I told the cardiologist the nurse said I should stop I heard and read about all the bad stuff that happens when stopping metoprolol too soon the nurse first told me to take it 5 days in the morning only half of it then stopped completely is this enough time ? then yesterday she told me to only do 3 days and stop completely ? I m on day 5 I have 2 more days I m so scared something bad will happen to me like a heart attack or stroke I also suffer from anxiety so I can’t control this fears I have so many bad side effects from this medication

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Metoprolol is a Great drug. Made for your rapid bpm condition.
Ask if you can go to 25 mg and take it in the Morning, to lessen sleep issues. They are related.
See if the S/E go away. If not you usually can just stop after a few weeks on 25 mg a day

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@markdeegan

Metoprolol is a Great drug. Made for your rapid bpm condition.
Ask if you can go to 25 mg and take it in the Morning, to lessen sleep issues. They are related.
See if the S/E go away. If not you usually can just stop after a few weeks on 25 mg a day

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Why nurse told to take it in the morning for 3 days and stop? Why you say I need to take it for couple weeks? I was taking xl 50 mg cut in half 12 hours apart so 50 daily I told the nurse about the side effects and she told me to do couple “days” 25 in the morning and stop? I m on day 6 of 25 in the morning tomorrow is the last day and I will stop

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@anacarel2018

Yes I know but I suffer from ocd and health anxiety is hard over here but with therapy I will keep it low so this don’t give me tachycardia I don’t have any birth defects or anything detect on my echocardiogram all my heart test were clear I got tachycardia apparently for no reason I got so many test done and nothing but I felt so afraid when I got the tachycardia I thought it was something very wrong with my heart so this triggered anxiety and anxiety triggered more episodes it turn into a vicious cycle and I was prescribed this terrible medication and now my ocd and anxiety are 10 times worse on top of that I have to deal with this side effect I have them all

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I also suffer from OCD but my point is this. Without being checked by an Electro Cardiologist, you’ll never know what’s triggering it. I have a very expensive Loop Heart Recorder implanted in my chest that records every beat of my heart 24/7. By beat, I mean every electrical pulse that makes my heart work. Has your SA node in the upper right Atrial Chamber be tested? It’s the natural pacemaker of your heart. It regulates how fast or slow each heartbeat is triggered. To fast(Tachycardia) or to slow(Bradycardia) and the rate is messed up. I have a short circuit that was discovered and instead of it going to the AV node (in the lower part of the right Atrial chamber, it goes around and around triggering my Right Ventricle to pump before it is full of blood. My heart is also being commanded to pump thru the normal pathway. So two different signals causes my Right ventricle to pump also . My fastest recorded amount is 197 beats a minute.

So if your SA node isn’t working correctly, it should have come up in one of your tests, EKG I believe. That’s where my regular cardiologist quit testing and put me on Metoprolol. An Electro Cardiologist would be able to determine why it’s not firing correctly, unlike my regular cardiologist just stopped. You may need a pacemaker to keep the SA node firing correctly, rather than masking up the cause by using drugs to cover the defect. I’ve had 3 heart attacks while my SA node was misfiring, not to scare you, but the short circuit was also a culprit too, which you shouldn’t have.

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@becky1024

I also suffer from OCD but my point is this. Without being checked by an Electro Cardiologist, you’ll never know what’s triggering it. I have a very expensive Loop Heart Recorder implanted in my chest that records every beat of my heart 24/7. By beat, I mean every electrical pulse that makes my heart work. Has your SA node in the upper right Atrial Chamber be tested? It’s the natural pacemaker of your heart. It regulates how fast or slow each heartbeat is triggered. To fast(Tachycardia) or to slow(Bradycardia) and the rate is messed up. I have a short circuit that was discovered and instead of it going to the AV node (in the lower part of the right Atrial chamber, it goes around and around triggering my Right Ventricle to pump before it is full of blood. My heart is also being commanded to pump thru the normal pathway. So two different signals causes my Right ventricle to pump also . My fastest recorded amount is 197 beats a minute.

So if your SA node isn’t working correctly, it should have come up in one of your tests, EKG I believe. That’s where my regular cardiologist quit testing and put me on Metoprolol. An Electro Cardiologist would be able to determine why it’s not firing correctly, unlike my regular cardiologist just stopped. You may need a pacemaker to keep the SA node firing correctly, rather than masking up the cause by using drugs to cover the defect. I’ve had 3 heart attacks while my SA node was misfiring, not to scare you, but the short circuit was also a culprit too, which you shouldn’t have.

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I also have a heart monitor with me before for 4 days it only showed sinus tachycardia and a early beat but nothing else the echocardiogram checked for SA node and I also had so many EKG all normal was your condition diagnosed by a EKG ? because I had a lot them normal and the echocardiogram normal heart monitor 24/7 at the hospital then the zio one at home normal all them showed sinus tachycardia and a early beat

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I was prescribed Metoprolol, but I had hallucinations, so I was switched to Atenolol.

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@anacarel2018

I also have a heart monitor with me before for 4 days it only showed sinus tachycardia and a early beat but nothing else the echocardiogram checked for SA node and I also had so many EKG all normal was your condition diagnosed by a EKG ? because I had a lot them normal and the echocardiogram normal heart monitor 24/7 at the hospital then the zio one at home normal all them showed sinus tachycardia and a early beat

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Because my heart is all messed up from the birth defect, it’s hard for me to remember events that were triggered by it. I believe your external monitor was either the Zio model or one you’re wired to and wear. I convinced my pcp of my need to be seen by an Electrophysiologist but they are highly regarded for their specialty. Mine is the top boss in the whole department of 35 doctors. So my pcp ordered the External Zio recorder and I wore it for two weeks. You really have to be unusual to get my doctor so my presentation was so intriguing he told me he’d see me during his lunch break. Remember, I’ve had this defect for 77 years before we discovered my defect is a 1 in a million occurrence. With the data from the Zio, it showed two sets of poppers (fast beats as I call them). One was clocked at 164 and another at 159, both occurred while I was sleeping but the duration wasn’t long. What really convinced him to take me on as his patient was me experiencing what I call spontaneous blackouts. I had had an episode of it 5 months before my appointment. When I talk about have an event, naturally a medical person think I fainted. Wrong, fainting you get a short warning like dizziness or lightheaded. My blackouts are instantaneous, one second I’m standing, next second I’m on the floor or ground, no warning, no nothing. I’ve experienced those kind of events since I’m a kid, but I never knew why or told anyone. It turns out my defect is part of a problem known as Wolff, Parkinson, White Syndrome and it can trigger my blackouts and heart attacks.

Part of my defect taught me that my electrical pathways between chambers is also messed up. It’s to long to explain but each chamber has two pathways for the pulse to go thru. All three main pathways are dead and my heart’s just working on the backups. If any of those three should block, I’ll hit the floor, dead between the first half of the heartbeat and the second half. So yes, EKG’s & EEG’s pick up the messed up signals . I’ve had a Right Bundle Block for a number of years. Hope I answered you questions.

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To help you better understand my heart, my EKG will show the peak then a small peak attached to the main one on the right side. What it’s doing is showing the delay of the signal going thru the secondary pathways. I have to watch what medications I take because I can’t take something that will slow my heartbeat up anymore or my heart will probably stop. My heart’s wearing out but it’s still trying to work and keep me alive. Can’t ask anymore of a heart that should have killed me as a child. If it bothers you so much, if you have a good insurance, get an appointment with a Electro Cardiologist and let them test you, that’s what I did and I highly recommend you do too, to give you pease of mind.

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@becky1024

To help you better understand my heart, my EKG will show the peak then a small peak attached to the main one on the right side. What it’s doing is showing the delay of the signal going thru the secondary pathways. I have to watch what medications I take because I can’t take something that will slow my heartbeat up anymore or my heart will probably stop. My heart’s wearing out but it’s still trying to work and keep me alive. Can’t ask anymore of a heart that should have killed me as a child. If it bothers you so much, if you have a good insurance, get an appointment with a Electro Cardiologist and let them test you, that’s what I did and I highly recommend you do too, to give you pease of mind.

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Oh ok I understand your situation thank for explaining the diagnosed me with anxiety and panic attacks because they couldn’t find anything wrong I m a hypochondriac bad health anxiety and ocd all this lead me to depression I m always thinking what if now I m thinking what if I have a heart attack from stopping metoprolol even though I wean it off for a week is so exhausting living with ocd and health anxiety I have to stop googling stops but if something was wrong the ekg or echocardiogram would’ve been show it it just my anxiety causing me tachycardia

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@Erinmfs

I was prescribed Metoprolol, but I had hallucinations, so I was switched to Atenolol.

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How long did the hallucinations last ?

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@amandajro

Hello @anacarel2018. I can understand your concern with your Rx coming to an end, especially given your anxiety.

I actually found another discussion on the topic of Metoprolol so you will notice I moved your post here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/metoprolol/?pg=9#chv4-comment-stream-header

Members such as @artist01 @tct @karen1945 have all shared that they are, or have, taken Metoprolol and may be able to come in and provide their experiences with you.

Is your Rx done as of tomorrow?

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I saw that I was mentioned as also taking metoprolol. I was prescribed 50 mg twice a day after experiencing one afib episode while in the hospital after surgery. My BP plummeted, so they cut the dose in half. I had been taking it for four years before I discovered recently that it could be contributing to my kidney problems. I decided to wean myself off it and see if that made a difference in my kidney function. I haven’t had bloodwork since I did this, but will know when I go for another blood draw in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed. I do believe I’m sleeping better since I quit metoprolol. I still get up a few times at night since I drink a LOT of water, but I go right back to sleep without my mind racing. I haven’t noticed any significant rise in BP.

I am 76 years old, and have experienced irregular heartbeats, PVCs, for years. My doctor at the time I first noticed the PVCs said that they weren’t dangerous, and not to stress over them. I’ve survived for many years with them. I remember my father had them as well, and he lived for 94 years.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I am better off with the bare minimum of prescription drugs. I need to take immunosuppressive drugs, but other than that I will avoid them at all costs!

To minimize stress, I listen to soothing music and guided meditations. Amazing to see the effects of both on blood pressure! I also take long walks, which also lowers stress and blood pressure. Our minds have a powerful influence on our health.

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