Bidoprolol withdrawal. EP study
Hi, has anyone suffered awful withdra... - British Heart Fou...
Hi, has anyone suffered awful withdrawal symptoms when stopping 1.25mg bisoprolol for 5 days prior to EP study?
Written by
kizzie105
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
28 Replies
•
I suffered awful withdrawal symptoms from stopping bisoprolol for 5 minutes. If you ve stopped them cold turkey no weaning you have my deep sympathy . Some people can just stop others most definitely can’t without awful withdrawals
Thank you for your reply. I had food poisoning last year and had to stop the bisoprolol for 4 days and felt dreadful so I know what’s coming and I’m terrified! Don’t know whether to have the study or not. Had no help from hospital, was told no one gets withdrawal symptoms on such a low dose!
Yes well. There are an awful lot of us “no ones” on here who would beg to differ with that !
May I ask why you had to stop your meds? Was it to have an EP study too? Thank you
I found stopping bisorpolol from 1.25mg made me quite agitated when I was switching to propranolol, but I found cutting the tablet in half for a few days then into quarters meant very little withdrawal effects! they are hard to cut sadly I just always took the biggest half out of the two.
Thanks for your thoughts. Unfortunately I must be very sensitive to this drug, tried to cut dose down from 3/4 tablet to 1/2 8 days ago and had such terrible effects I’ve had to go back to the 3/4 again. Still feeling dreadful
I weaned off over several months and still felt dreadful but not as bad as when I withdrew more quickly and had to go back on twice . I dropped an eighth a month and it involved a Stanley knife blade and a magnifying glass to cut the tiny tablets up
I thought I might feel better today as I’ve been back on 3/4 pill for 3 days but I woke at 2am this morning shaking, with heart pounding, got back to sleep but happened again at 6am. Heart arrhythmia nurse told me 1.25 bisoprolol doesn’t give you withdrawal symptoms!! They want me to have EP study early May but I declined for now, need to feel better before even thinking of coming off for 5 days
I have tried to come off 1.25 Bisoprolol many times because I thought it was them causing me to feel unsteady foggy and unwell but I felt worse. After a couple of days I relent and start taking them again. I have SVT. Mitral valve prolapse and now they say I have heart block
kizzie105 in reply to
Hi, I can completely understand that. I have painful left bundle branch block, haven’t come across anyone else yet with this. How are you now?
in reply to kizzie105
Good days and not so good days but still pretty active. It does get me down though. Apparently 1.25 Bisoprolol is a tiny dose so how can we feel so dreadful with or without it! I,m not sure sometimes whether it’s our heart problem that is causing us to feel like this.
Peony4575 in reply to
4 months today after stopping I can tell you it’s the drug or was in my case otherwise I would feel the same now if it was me who was the problem
in reply to Peony4575
You could be right! I have gotten dependent on taking it, if I am going out to the shops I worry my heart will play up and reassure myself that I,ve taken the Bisoprolol so I will be ok. I,ve been getting chest pressure lately, when I was in A&E 2 weeks ago with a SVT attack I asked why I was getting a lot of chest pressure and they said my heart was good but no reassuring reply.
Peony4575 in reply to
I have a box of it so if I have an episode I could take it . It depends on what is wrong with you whether you need it or not . Psychological safety behaviours are very very powerful and hard to give up I agree eg I always carry my Kardia
Did it take you 8 months to come off ? I’ve been considering doing this in the future but I’m single and work 2 jobs so can’t see how I would do it and still keep my job.
I work from home and have to be honest the symptoms including mad anxiety would have been too much to go out to work . You can try dropping an eighth and see if you can cope with that and stabilise even if it takes longer than a month . What I had to do was get changed in to Atenolol which had far fewer side effects and withdrawal symptoms and I very slowly came off that . Don’t think I would ever have been able to get off biso the symptoms were too severe and I am not a wuss . Maybe discuss with your doctor the possibility of changing . Bisoprolol is lipophilic which means fat soluble which allows it to cross the blood brain barrier causing the awful symptoms. Atenolol, and others are hydrophilic which means soluble in water so doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier and cause centrally mediated side/withdrawal effects. A cardiologist suggested to me I did that
Thank you so much for that. I had heard though that because as you say antenol doesn’t cross the blood/brain barrier that you will still have all the bisoprolol in your brain and will have awful side effects like dizziness and headaches when the bisoprolol is stopped. I’ve been on it for 15 months now. In my second week of sick leave following a 0.30mg reduction which was so bad I’ve had to go back to the old dose which was 3/4 of a 1.25mg pill. I would welcome your thoughts on this .
I have looked back on my daily diary I kept and still keep of symptoms and yes the changeover symptoms were bad. It was like I was going through acute bisoprolol withdrawal and the atenolol held some of the worst of it down . When that period passed it became easier I don’t believe I would ever have been able to stop the bisoprolol without. If you are like me I honestly don’t know how you are going to be able to come off and work. I barely went beyond the house and garden for months . The timing was good for me as locked down anyway due to the pandemic . I can’t tell you how sorry I am that you have been put in this position by prescribed drugs ( and myself)
It’s a absolute nightmare, I just can’t see a way out . It’s 6 years til I retire and I can’t wait that long. I’m so glad you’re through it now, you must have been very brave .
I don’t know about brave I was terrified . But I couldn’t cope with being on them either and I was able to stay/ work from home . If you are stable on three quarters of a tablet all I can suggest even if you left it 6 months or a year and dropped an eighth at the beginning of a holiday period you are spending at home and gave yourself another sixth months or a year until you are stable on that dose if the withdrawal symptoms are cop able with . That way at least it won’t be a “welcome to hell” scenario when you retire . I am still feeling reduced ability to manage stress and trying to regain some fitness I won’t deny the whole thing has been a nightmare . I will support you in anyway I can
Thank you so much, that’s so kind. Once I feel better this time I hope to be back at work on 4th May , I then have to decide whether or not I can go through with the EP study as it means going through this again as you have to come off completely for 5 days prior to it, although the cardiac arrhythmia nurse said it might be possible to reduce that to 3 days . I don’t have to have it but I won’t know what’s going on with my irregular beat if I don’t. The thought of going cold turkey for even 3 days is terrifying. Then there’s going back onto the bisoprolol again afterwards and re-adjusting , it just goes on .
I feel for you, you are in a rock and a hard place situation. If I had stopped cold turkey I wouldn’t have been able to get to the hospital for the procedure ! I cancelled an echo . My hairdressers wife has just been through a similar thing she had to stop bisoprolol to have an ablation and she found it very difficult . There are a lot of us about but many HCPs still aren’t listening
I was fortunate and had no symptoms when I came off bisoprolol. I am very sorry to hear about your withdrawal symptoms. I would try to go back to medics and ask for advice. Everyone is different and I do sympathise and hope you can find a solution
