Amlodipine Hell.. coming off it.

Hi All,

Just wanted to join in as I've been experiencing all the awful side effects. I stopped about 6 weeks ago after finally realizing the culprit to my misery might be the Amlodipine. I was on and off for a couple years. When I started to take it consistently my symptoms really got worse. All the same stuff listed here...ER visits, chest pains, dizziness, disassociation, blurry vision, impending doom, anxiety..... I'm a 46 year old, fairly active male with no previous history of any of this.

Some things have gotten better, but chest pain, tightness, anxiety still almost daily. Seems to hit me mostly at work at the worst times. I've been working with a cardiologist and had one stress echocardiogram that came back "borderline."I am now scheduled for a heart CT next week to check for potential blockages. He also suggests I start taking hydrochlorothiazide. I'm holding off until I seem to be past the Amlodipine side effects. He also prescribed low dose aspirin which I started taking. One visit to the ER they gave me a prescription for nitrogylcerin which I take every few days for chest pain.

BP is currently 147/91.

Anyone else continue to have chest pain months after stopping? Does it eventually go away? Thanks everyone. This site has really helped put me at ease to see that others are experiencing similar things.

Jeff, I too have had so many of the symptoms you are experiencing. The brain fog has really got me scared. I'm 73 and in good shape except I need to lose 20 lbs. which won't come off with this drug. I walk daily (5,000-10,000 steps a day) and eat low carb, low sugar diet. Back pain is significantly worse and overall pain in shoulder and lower leg plus unbelievable swelling in my ankles and feet. Terrible stomach bloating no matter what I eat. Take 5mg of this drug and starting reducing it to 2.5 this a.m. Will report later on my findings. Don't go back to cardiologist until October.

Hi Jeff, Did you also have weird everyday headaches?. What did they feel like, and after how long did they subside?

I was on it for just 14 days ..to say my body didn't like it was a understatement

i seem to be getting BP spikes due to tyramine yet all the doctors keep saying I'm having an anxiety attack (we you would if your hear rate jumps from 55 to 85 and your BP jumps from 140/85 to 190/115)

so thy put me on this stuff within hrs i was having cramps in my hands tinitus kidney pains tremors .

after a week things seemed to settle down but my diastolic remained high so the doc said double the dose .

feeling weary i went from 5mg to 7.5 mg instead of 10 . the following 3 days were hell .

my BP was all over the place one min it was 137/90 then within a few min was 157/101 and again my hear was up to 88 but this time it was erratic skipping for a second then beating 3 times all at once ..

i really did thing i was going to die .this lasted 3 days until i took myself off it .(The doctor didn't even know this was a possible side effect !)

i hope people reading this may recognize the symptoms early .never increase your dose so fast ...

im starting to think i dont even have a BP problem but a amine intolerance ..DYOR

Regards ...stay well

Jeff I have experienced much of the same you mentioned. How have you relieved the nausea? I have a HORRIBLE experience with it along with the body aches and a real odd queasy feeling. My doctor switched me to a product called "metropalol". Not sure if I spelled it correctly. It is to help palpitations and blood pressure. I just started it, but had the worst bout with nausea in my life today. Wondered if after coming off amlodipine, there are possible withdrawal symptoms? If so, could someone please tell me what to do? I recently ended up in emergency to find out that all my tests were normal, but I know I am not feeling normal. My body tends to feel ill almost every day and the acid reflux is terrible. Any one have any suggestions? Especially about the nausea. Hopefully it will end soon. Want my body and my life back to normal.

hi everyone, i recently started this medication and only lasted only a couple of days. Ended up in the hospital, EKG and bloodwork were both perfect and ER said it was just a panic attack. i still have burning sensation in my chest and arms, ive been off this medication for only a day and i feel so overwhelmed. i havent felt this way until taking this medicine idk what else i can do to feel better.

I got put on amlodipine 2.5mg back in December as a treatment for Raynauds (my blood pressure has always been normal or lower). Since starting it I've gotten some insane pressure in my head that caused headaches/migraines almost daily. my BP was hovering around 100/66 for a few weeks and I got to the point that walking across the house was taking a toll on my energy. a few weeks ago I woke up to blurriness in only my right eye that wouldn't go away plus the brain fog. I'm 3 days in to not taking it and while the raynauds is still irritating, the other issues are starting to improve..

I'm so relieved to have found this forum. I took Amlodipine for 5 weeks and have been off it for 11 days.When taking the drug I suffered, neck, left shoulder, arm & finger pain. Constant nausea, foggy head, lack of concentration along with ankle pain. I had absolutely no energy or enthusiasm but the feeling of doom & death was terrifying. I became emotional and tearful many times a day. I was often awake for many hours at night with a trembling stomach as well as palpitations. Loss of appetite.

Since stopping the drug I have begun to feel better, A lot of the symptoms are still there and I still have times when I'm tearful. The trembling stomach still happens but nowhere near as often. I've had a phone consultation with a physio who informed me I possibly have a trapped nerve which is causing the neck, arm etc pain. This could be true, but the pain was vastly increased when on the medication. I still have times when I doubt the cause of these symptoms is the medication, but the fact that the spates of bad times is widening I'm hopeful I'm progressing towards becoming something like the person I was before Amlodipine.

It is totally reassuring to read so many others have/are suffering like myself. There have been times when I felt I was going mad.

OMgosh!!! You are describing my symptoms exactly! I thought I was going mad! Went to doctors, had tests done, all normal. Nobody could explain my tiredness and exhaustion, my muscle and body pain, my left arm pain! Went to the Chiropractor for that, no improvement. Finally my pcp (who had prescribed the amlodipine) diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia and put me on more meds!!! Still no improvement....I was getting seriously depressed, because I couldn't go on feeling like this all the time. One sleepless night I dove into the side effects on the Mayo Clinic website, and there they were....but you had to scroll way down the list. So I started to taper off from 10mg, am now at 2.5mg and will stop completely in a couple of days...and guess what??? I already feel sooooo much better! I can move my left arm again, my body aches are much improved and I dont need to take any more Ibuprofen or Gabapentin, my brain fog has lifted....its unbelievable! I don't know what my BP will do but I have to figure something else out for that. Will NEVER take that poison again!!! Thanks for validating what I have experienced. It shows that you have to be your own health advocate....can't just rely on doctors. Hope you will continue to improve!

hi jeff, goodness i dont know where to start. i didnt have any problem with my blood pressure before. im 40 years old, had my baby december 22nd, after a week of delivery my bp shot up to 180/88. i freaked out. The OB triage put me on potassium and lasix for 5 days ( the lasix protocol) because i was retaining fluids, and they started me on amlodipine 5mg. That was 4 months ago.

so, unfortunately, most doctors don't realize that amlodipine is not fast acting! after two days, they decided to up the dose to 10mg, instead of giving the 5mg time to see if it was enough . Amlodipine takes 7-8 hours to work, and two to three weeks to level out in your system. So, i took the 10mg for 37 days to be exact. The only side effect i had was leg spasms/contractions and knee pain. Which was pretty annoying. My numbers were pretty good, the dr. said it was fine to taper down to 5mg.

So, i tapered to 5mg, and stayed on 5mg for two weeks. My readings were still pretty good. So, i decided to taper off to 2.5mg. i was working out 5 days a week, and eating healthy, my reading stayed low. My big mistake was, i got off med after one week of being on the 2.5mg.

After two days of being off, my bp shot up to 180/99. i freaked out, and got back on the med again. i stayed on 10 mg for maybe two weeks, but this time my dr. suggested i take 5mg twice a day one in the Am and one in the Pm, instead of one 10mg aday. She said i might respond to two divided doses better than one dose. My readings were pretty good on 5mg am, and 5mg pm. So, i tapered the evening dose to 2.5mg. for the past three weeks i was on 5mg am, and 2.5mg pm. All of a sudden, like three weeks ago, i started having pins and needles sensations to my hands and feet. This lasted for maybe 5 days. The pins and needles still come and go. Then, a week ago, my back started hurting, the pain radiates to my side, the head of my stomach hurt, and nausea. People told me oh this is anxiety, but i wasn't anxious at all! my numbers were pretty good, why would i be anxious!

The back pain got worse, and the nausea. i went to get an ultrasound for kidneys and gallbladder thinking stones. The ultrasounds were normal. Blood work, urine tests, EKG, everything came back normal. i do get palpitations sometime, but i truly believe my palpitations happen only when im over tired or anxious. i told my cardiologist that Amlodipine is causing me these side effects, he said no, he said amlodipine doesnt cause muscle/ back pain, or nausea. I truly think all my problems are due to the Amlodipine, i cant think of anything else that might be causing these side effects but the bp med.

i was reading that amlodipine can cause digestive problems. So, maybe my stomach pain, feeling full, bloatness, nauseated, all bcz of Amlodipine!

Anyway, today i decided to get off Amlodipine and try Nefidipine ER. im actually scared haha, bcz i know all bp meds tend to have side effects. im praying i dont get nasty ones on Nefidipine tho.

I stopped amlodipine after tapering off on April 29th this year. its almost two months now. my brain fog lifted after a week. but Im slowly getting worse. rebound bp is hitting now. it stayed normal for the first 4 weeks but slowly been creeping back up again. feelings of anxiety and overall weakness are common now. i am so tempted to start back on this poison but I need to keep going. I just started taking an ace inhibitor to help control bp, since diet and exercise is no longer controlling it, but its not working well, and Im having side effects from them now too. any advice would be appreciated.