Bisoprolol withdrawal

thank you so much for replying to me, i'm so glad you finally got off bisoprolol, my heart ached for what you went through. I have been told by my GP to stay on the reinstated dose until i see the cardiologist which is 8/6/21, but its do hard to cut and weigh the pills exactly. How did your husband cut them so accurately,?its bad enough now trying to maintain the dose, dont know how ill do it if/when i go for full withdrawsl. today when i weighed the pill the weight varied from 0.061 down to 0.057. any tips would really help. im so glad youre still visiting this site because im going to need all the help i can get. Good luck on 1/6 Let us know how you get on. Thanks again x

i cant thank you enough for your really useful advice. i already feel how much just a tiny difference in dose can make so your tips will be invaluable . Thanks again and please let us know how you get on on Tuesday. best wishes x

Hi there, I'm so sorry you didnt get the answers you were hoping for. How do you feel now? Do you think the other problems with your heart have been caused by bisoprolol? Hopefully Dr Gupta will still be able to help x

Hi Susan

Yes I am sure the bisoprolol made my ectopics worse because I would not have them every day and when I did I used to gave prolonged periods without them. The bisprolol certainly made the much more prolonged and frequent. Prior to starting bisoprolol my ectopic burden was 4% after coming off the bisoprolol it was 8.25% and now I am running around 14%.

Some people are fine on and coming off bisoprolol I one of the unfortunate ones who had alot of side effects on it and coming off it.

Dont get me wrong I feel a hundred times better now I am no longer taking biso but am very reluctant to try any further medical drugs because of the many side effects they carry.

I am taking taurine and magnesium supplements at the moment which helps to soften the pounding of the ectopics but not the jumping of my heart and fluttering in my throat.

How are you getting on with your withdrawal?

Hi Susan

So sorry you are having such a bad time I really know what you are going through. The other way that I withdrew from some other medication although it may take a bit longer is to take 3/4 for 3 days then take 1/2 tablet on day 4 then 3/4 again for day 5,6, and 7 and then the following week take 5 days at 3/4 and 2 days at 1/2 spread evenly over the week and than 4 days at 3/4 and 3 days at 1/2 spreading the different doses evenly over the week until you are down to 1/2 tablet every day and then take that for 1 week and then drop to 1/2 for 6 days and 1/4 for 1 day each drop again spread evenly until you get for 1/4 every day and then finally just drop to 1/4 for 6 days the follow week 1/4 for 5 days and so on until you are not taking any at all.

I hope that makes sense, please stick the withdrawing if possible as you will feel a hundred times better when you finally stop.

Remember I am here if you want to talk.

Oh Susan

I am so sorry you dont feel you can continue to withdraw. it did take me 8 months and I must admit the first couple of months I had sleep depravation and many other things I even got to the point one night where I rang the Samaritans and also had the crisis team out. (although they were no help at all).

I am 69 and yes it does get harder the older you are and the longer you have been on them. I have a friend though who was also withdrawing bisoprolol and her GP put her on Atenolol for a couple on months and then she withdrew from that which she says was much easier because atenolol does not go through the brain barrier and the side effect was a little bit of anxiety and agitation but she say it was much easier than trying to come off bisoprolol. Maybe you could ask your consultant what he thinks about atenolol.

i know who you are talking about, she has been very supportive to me over the last few weeks on the other forum. she had only been on biso for a few weeks though so i imagine it was a bit easier to switch although she said it was a bumpy ride. cant think what it would be like after 18 months. i really dont know what i am going to do,, i dont even know if its possible to go back , would it work? how much higher would the dise have to be? i saw my cardiologist 2 days ago and although he was lovely, kind and never once dismissed anything i said, im sure he thinks ill be all sorted in a couple of months, he wants me to have CBT to help with anxiety, never been anxious in my life til now! im so sorry to hear you had to call the samaritans, hearing that just terrified me, how on earth did you get through it?

also, perhaps you can give me your view on this.. i take my tablet in the morning when i get up but my cardiologist has suggested i cut the pill in half ( so half of 3/4 pill) and take one half in the morning and the other half in the evening to see if i sleep better and wake less jittery. im not sure about this, i think i would suffer more withdrawals in the morning because my body is expecting 3/4 but will only get 1/2 that and its a big drop . i really think hes making this up as he goes along, he admitted he hasnt seen anyone like this before

I dont think the doctors or consultants realise that some people have the withdrawals like we have had. One of my GPs wanted me to go on antidepressants and diazepam but I knew again when I wanted to stop I would get withdrawal symptoms from those. I have heard some people take biso at night and sleep better but I don think there is any way of easy withdrawal from them. When i used to have several bad nights sleep I used to take a piriton tablet which is an antihistamine which my GP said was ok as long as I didnt take it on a regular basis. This used to give me 5 to 6 hours good sleep. The anxiety and nightmares was the worse thing about withdrawal I used to wake shaking and terrified for no reason at all, again I did learn that when it happened that it would go away in about 15 minutes which it did but the anxiety happened alot during the day as well and I used to go for a walk until it went away.

A couple of people I have chatted with have taken CBD oil and have found this quite effective during withdrawal but to me its very expensive about £60 for a small bottle so I didnt try that.

The problem with biso it has a very long half life and if you are taking 2,5mgs a day after about 10 days the build up of the half life means that there is 5mgs in your body all the time.

hi, was looking forward to hearing from you but it says your teply is waiting to be moderated, havent seen that before, , hope it wont be too long x

Hi, thanks so much for everything one last thing, Im assuming you have had the covid jab? how did you get on? ive got mine later today but this damn anxiety is making me question everything!!

Hi Susan

So sorry have not been able to get back to you sooner but for some reason have been locked out of this site for the last 2 hours.

I hope that you have been for your Covid vaccination. You will get a sore arm for about three to fours days and also may feel tired and hot and cold for a couple of days but you will be absolutely fine after that and it is certainly worth having a bit of side effect as they say that your body is building up the antibodies. The second vaccine isnt quite as bad but you will still probably have a sore arm for a few days. When it first came out I wasnt going to have it then decided it was the lesser of the two evils and now I am certainly glad I did. I am a volunteer marshall for the clinics and we are still doing about 12000 vaccines a day so with all those people passing through the center we have been absolutely fine and with no sign of covid and we do have the rapid covid test twice a week.

Unfortunately as with myself the withdrawal causes massive anxiety but I am living proof that if you can stick with it you will feel a hundred times better when you are off it completely.

Hi, yes i finally had my jab though i had to sit to one side of the hall for nearly an hour battling with anxiety over whether to have it or not, i was/am worried that the bisoprolol has changed my physiological make up and that i will get awful side effects, the doctor was incredibly patient with me! I am so impressed that you marshall at a covid centre, after everything youve suffered you are an inspiration!

I am so glad you have managed to have the vaccine. Just remember if you do feel a bit ill it is not your anxiety but the effect of your body making antibodies to fight any covid.

I will check in later and see how you are but dont worry if you are not on top form and dont want to answer.

Hi there. i am actually feeling ok this morning so far, took bisoprolol about 1 1/2 hours ago so will probably feel very tired soon but no effects from jab so far. The thing with me is i have a lot times when i feel normal, especially in the evenings , and i almost forget my body is in withdrawal . i know it is because of waking early all shaky til i take my dose and then feeling too tired to do much til the evening and i have very weak legs. our mutual friend on the other forum says this is because of the bidoprolol and wont go until i come off them. plus i know i cant carry on like this, in limbo but when i reduced to a 1/2 tablet, 2 months ago, my heart rate went way up, do did blood pressure and mu chest hurt so much! after i reinstated the old dose its taken me 2 months for my heart to feel better. will be so hard to have to do that again, but i dont think i have much choice do I?

So glad you feel ok.

Each time you drop biso your heart rate and blood pressure will go up for a couple of weeks then even out and also the pain and breathlessness will eventually go although mine was some months after being off the biso that it got back to normal. Mornings are always the worse until you have the biso then about an hour after you have taken it you feel reasonable again. Unfortunately that is the withdrawal and it is really horrible and depressing.

If our mutual friend is called peony would you bee so kind as to let her know for me that for whatever reason I have been hacked and blocked on the other site so am unable to correspond with her.

Hope you continue to feel ok after your jab.

she is Peony and of course i will let her know

Thank you

Hi, ive passed your message on to Peony. please can i ask you , what weight was the last pill you took, the one you finally weaned off? i am currently on roughly 3/4 of a 1.25 tablet which weighs about 0.060 on my scales . thank you

Thank you for informing Peony for me.

Different manufactures of the tablet weighed different weights so I asked the chemist if they could always give me the same manufacturer which they did.

My full 1.25mg tablet weighed .044 gram. At 3/4 strength it weighed .033gms

The final strength of my tablet was 0.08 and weighed 0 .003 of a gram.

At the point of my final dose it took a further 6 days to be completely out of my system. I was still having shorter anxiety attacks for about 6 to 8 weeks after stopping.

I hope this helps

Thank you so much, my scales wont weigh that low ive just discovered. I will ring the pharmacist tomorrow andd ask them to make sure i always get the same brand because my pill weighs twice as much as yours, i had no idea , my brand is sandoz . hope you are well x

Yes I am fine thank you.

I made exactly the same mistake thinking that all the tablets were the same weight but once you get the pharmacy to give you the same manufacturer your cuts will be more accurate and you should become stable more quickly.

Good Luck

hi, I really dont know why i havent properly stabilised, im so careful weighing the pill and realised i always hsve sandoz pills,its a mystery to me, still havent split my pill between am and pm yet, ,

Please keep trying I know its hard but it is really worth it in the end.

If there is anything I can say or do just let me know, some days will be worse than others as no 2 days will be the same.

Whatever medication my GP or consultant suggests I take I research the side effects and if there are any withdrawal symptoms as I certainly do not want to go through the year I had taking and coming off bisoprolol.

Are you on any other medication that could also be giving you symptoms?

Hi, no i'm not on any other meds, i have a bit of acid reflux for which i take peptac which is like Gaviscon. when you say keep trying do you mean withdrawing or splitting the dose? i cant really see how this will help, its still the same dose each day and im sure my weak legs are caused by the dose being too high, because they are a little less weak before i take the dose

I used to drag myself through each day and just write down the periods when I didnt feel quite so bad and then when I had a few good days I used to reduce knowing that I would go through the bad days again but started to accept it and eventually my symptoms did get easier but I could write a who,e page of the side effects and withdrawal symptoms I had and people would get fed up with me moaning about them but I knew it was the biso causing the problems and although it has left me with the severe PVC and ectopics and a little anxiety from time to time I am glad I persevered the 8 month withdrawal.

I have found that taking Magnesium Citrate 200mgs once a day and Taurine 500mgs 3 times a day does help me sleep and calm my anxiety and my consultant has said that is fine on those doses and they are non addictive and naturel supplements and I can stop taking them anytime without effect.

good morning. i think im going to have to start coming off them very soon, my legs are getting more wobbly and achey, i think its because this dose is too high and its been building up in my system over the last couple of months and im just starting to feel it now. seeing cardiologist on 29 th have questions for him first. How long did it take for the burning in your feet to go

Although its 10 months since I had my last biso I still sleep most of the night even through the winter with my feet out of bed. It sounds silly but because your feet are the furthest away from your brain they take the longest to get back to normal. I have noticed that although some men suffer side effects and withdrawal symptoms they are no where near as severe as women seem to get. My next door neighbour who is 82 year old male started on biso 6 weeks ago has had to increase to 5mgs and has no side effects whatsoever. Also had another malefriend who was on 7.5mg had no side effects and no withdrawal and he just stopped taking them without weaning. He was on them for just over a year.

maybe its because overall we are smaller. im only 9 1/2 stone, have lost a stone since the end of april. even though im trying toi maintain my dose i keep getting a pain under my ribs that i know will get a whole lot worse when i reduce further. im so scared, Nanny knitting , ive been on them 18 months, dont think ive got the strength for this.

Nothing will happen to you if you continue to reduce very slowly. You will have alot of symptoms when reducing that you dont have while taking your full dose. Unfortunately it may take you longer to withdraw because you have been taking it fir 18 months. You have reduced down this far and you should start to see a light at the end of this very long withdrawal tunnel I will be here to support you as much as you need me to. Its not going to be easy but I am certain you will get there and be so glad you did.

Sending you a very large virtual hug.

Thank you so much for your support. just to fill you in, i havent withdrawn to 3/4 of 1.25 mg, ive actually increased to it. i started off on a whole tablet but last august i managed to drop to 1/2 tablet without too much trouble. since last xmas ive slowly increased to 3/4 because arrthyma nurse said i should. thats when i started to feel a bit unwell and my GP said to go back to 1/2. within 3 days my heart rate shot up to 110 bpm , i was shaking and sweating and called paramedics out. by the time they arrived, heart rate was lower. saw my GP next day who told me to go back to 3/4 . im not stable on this dose and legs are very weak so i know ive got to start withdrawing fully

Every time you drop even a small dose your heart rate and will go up and down quite considerably until you body has chance to stabilise and even then it will be possible be higher than before you started on biso. Before biso mine always ran in the low 70's but now I average 92. When I had a holter monitor on for a week earlier on in the year it ranged from 74 to as high as 161 if I was out walking and the consultant was not concerned. I saw an electrophysiologist at the beginning of June and my heart rate was 121 and again she wasnt concerned. You could suggest that you are changed to a different beta blocker to see if that makes any difference. The doctors put everyone initially on biso because it is the cheapest. Did you have to go on biso because of arrythmia?

yes, i have Left bundle branch block which apparantly lots if people have but are not aware of, but i could feel it each time it happened, felt like a sharp stab , cardiologist said it often means there is another underlying heart problem so i had lots of ecg , angiogram, echocardiogram and like you have s loop recorder implant. i an told everything is ok and loop recorder only ever shows the LBBB and heart rate. cardiologist said theres no other heart problem indicated and i will come to no significsnt harm if i come off bisoprolol he also said the high HR was within acceptable parameters. doesnt feel like it though does it? and anxiety pushes your HR up too , the high HR and acute anxiety that you describe scare me the most. honestly dont know how you got through it, did rescue remedy really help?

Yes the Rescue Remedy did work you only need a couple of drops and although expensive and a very small bottle it lasts a long time although I did have to have 3 bottles over the 8 months I was withdrawing. I also found meditation and deep breath counting helped.

Even now because of the volume of PVCs I have daily I have to keep telling myself they are not doing me harm (12 to 16 thousand a day) a day and not very comfortable when they are ever second or third beat.

When I first came completely of the biso I was sent to hospital nearly every week by either the GP or 111 and all they did was blood tests and ecg the last time I was there I heard the doctor ask a nurse what further tests should I have and it didnt give me any confidence at all so I dont even bother to contact GP or 111 when I have multiple palps.

Has anyone any idea if these palps will always be with you? Can you still live s normal life? also which type if anxiety did you have? . ive had a bit of both types, the nervousy jittery type ans also the painful knot in stomach/ chest type, both are horrible

I have the very jittery anxiety and I am often on edge and quick tempered more than I used to be, this happens mostly in the mornings and I seem to be calmer in the afternoon and evenings. I also find I dont want to go out sometimes and also get nervous when I am driving. I dont know wether that is due to the lasting effect of biso or if its to do with the covid lockdown. I have never been a confident driver but now I always ask my other half if he wants to drive me. Mostly he does but sometimes he does say no to make me drive myself.

The palps will always be with me unless I try toxic medication but if the multiple much more they will consider an ablation which again I am not sure about. I have lived with them for the past 2 years and although they are quite distressing especially when they continue for a long period of time I am going to try and live with them unless it starts to cause cardiomyopathy when I shall have to consider medication or ablation.

i did read on the other forum that coming off bisoprolol in this way( not easily) oftens leaves people with their original problems but worse. dont much relish my LBBB worse. it was fine on 1/2 tab and not been too bad lately. i hate not being able to go out in my car, my legs are so weak i couldnt posdibly drive. theyve definitely got wirse in the last couple if weeks seeing cardiologist again in a week , must get this sorted

hi there

im folloeing your story with a lot of interest. i am battling to reduce my small Atenolol dose. i am suffering a lot with burning hands and feet. is this typical of beta blocker withdrawal? i feel very ill on the drug as well as tapering off. feel agitated, anxious, sweaty and chills. the ER had no idea how to help me. my doctor neither. can you help me understand?

Hi Catherine

I a so sorry you are having alot of problems withdrawing atenolol. Yes side effects and withdrawal are burning hands and feet and the worse is the anxiety and being agitated. As you have probably read it took me eight long months to come off bisoprolol. It has now been 9 months since I came off them and I am sooooo glad I managed to do it because now I feel I have my life back. How often are your dose? I was literally shaving my tablet with sandpaper so was only reducing a very very small amount every few days. The other way you could reduce but it may takr a little longer is have your normal dose for 3 days then break on in half day 4 then normal dose for next 3 days. The following week 5 full doses and 2 half dose 3rd week 4 full doses and 3 half doses and so on until you are have 7 days half dose after that start the process again and have 3 days half the dose miss one day and again 3 days half a dose until you finally decrease to your final half dose in week 7. I hope you can understand that. The burning does eventually decrease very slowly as does the agitation and anxiety. I dont know wether you can by Bach rescue remedy drops where you are but they help with the anxiety and agitation as does as does slow deep breathing and meditation on utube.

Even after stopping atenolol you will still feel anxious and agitated from time to time but it does get easiers and better. You shouldnt have the withdrawal as long as I had it because bisoprolol crosses the blood brain barrier and atenolol doesnt so your body should get back to normal quicker.

I will always be here if you want further support or have any other questions.

Just though I would have a catch up to see if you are doing any better and how you got on at your cardiology appointment?

Hi, i'm seeing cardioligist on tuesday though dont think hell be sble to help me. ive been following his instructions to split my dose between morning and evening but it makes me feel worse, been having prickly skin feeling and stomach cramps the last few days and im staying on the same dose! am so scared that as soon as i drop ill have terrible pains in abdomen. also i think taking two small doses a day us going to be very difficult to reduce from, he thinks ill be sble to just drop one of the doses, but its too much, i really dont know how im going to go about it, ive got myself into such s mess by listening to medics did you have stomach, muscle pains?

Yes I had alot of muscle pain and upset stomach. I lost 21lbs in weight in a very short time. Some days I didnt feel like eating at all. I also had lung soreness and breathlessness when I breathed and walking was terrible.

Most days I was exhausted and had to have a sleep in the afternoon but since stopping the beta blocker I have put weight back on, eat normally dont sleep at all during the day and have plenty of stamina so if you can persevere you will get better and feel normal again.

weighing the pill is driving me mad! been trying to maintain weight of 0.060 on scale but after cutting it fluctuates between 0.059 and 0.063 i know it doesnt sound like much of a difference to most people but it does to me, probably why i havent stabilised. any tips! been leaving scales in the same place and cutting st same time of day

The tablet will always fluctuate after you have cut it because although it seems silly the time of day and what the weather is like can also make it go up and down. The best think to do is cut four or five tablets to the weight you need and then just take one a day without weighing them again. When you have had a few reasonable days then drop the dose again. You are going to feel rough every time you drop but it will get easier but again you will probably get alot of different withdrawal symptoms every time you reduce but trust me you will feel so much better when you have completely withdrawn from them. I often used to want to go back on a higher dose just to give me a reasonable day but I know the withdrawal would have taken me alot longer as I would have been building the tablet back up in my body again.

i know youre right and ive got no choice but to do it, but i as ive been on them for 18 months i know it will be so bad and im not a strong person mentally or physically and the symptoms are so unpredictable. one question, did you find holy basil worked and where did you buy it. Thank you

Yes I did find holy basil worked but I only took it for 3 months, I have a cup of tulsi tea (which is holy basil) every day but if you read up on taurine you will also find that this helps you cope with anxiety and agitation and as it is an amino acid it is very safe to take for long periods of time. I buy my taurine from Natures Best off the inter net and holy basil (tulsi) by Swanston of the internet. Tulsi holy basil tescI buy from holland and barrett or my local Waitrose store.

Thank you do much , i will let you know how i get on with cardiologist tomorrow

Are you feeling any better and how did you get on with you cardiology appointment. Something positive I hope.

Hi, not really no. says i have to come off bisoprolol and i can either withdraw slowly at my own pace or go onto a calcium channel blocker but will have to be off biso within 2 weeks of going on ccb. i dont think thats an option, almost cold turkey! someone on the other forum did that and was still having severe problems 15 months later. Also, re slow wean off, found out on my first 24 hr ecg tsken in 2019 it showed unsustained VT which in itself isnt a huge problem except that if the heart is under stress and heart rate increases it can lead to VT which is dangerous and can lead to cardiac arrest. i asked cardiologist about this and he just said it could be but taking everything into account he felt i nothing significantly bad will happen to me when coming off the bb. my head is spinning with the worry, he really thinks coming off will be no problem thats why hes not concerned. i tried to tell him again how high my heart rate went previously and how it will happen each time the dose is dropped but he just smiled and repeated what he'd previosly said and then asked me if i wanted to see a psychiatrist about my anxiety! i honestly dont know what to do, its bad enough having to come off but then to not know if youll even survive it or take the other option of cold turkey . got appt with a different GP next week to see snout 2nd opinion.

I really feel very very sorry for you. I think that the biso may be giving you anxiety as it did myself but if you have got to come off it quickly then I dont know what to advise unfortunately you will possibly have the anxiety even worse for a while but maybe the the CCB's will make the withdrawal a littler easier.

I will be here if you need to talk anytime.

thank you