Coming off Atenolol

Recently I had an appointment with our Dr's practice pharmacy nurse. She was amazingly thorough and scrutinized my medication and why I was on it. She was very surprised I was on 100mg Atenolol. I was put on it by a GP about five years ago for anxiety and was told I'd be on it for life. She has reviewed my situation, there are a few factors taken into consideration, and also the fact I have my anxiety under control and she would like to start weaning me off it. This would be done under the watch of another GP. This is a very, very short version of our discussion.

Obviously this would be done gradually, but I would like to know if anyone out there has done this - what should I expect? I know that when I missed a couple of days I had dreadful upset stomach so I'm dreading it a bit, but for many reasons I want to get off Atenolol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pansy

what should I expect?

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Probably not a lot. Atenolol is a beta-blocker mostly prescribed for high blood pressure and the most common physical withdrawal effect if stopped suddenly is a spike in BP which is why it should be weaned off over some days.

this post was done over 3 years ago PDU

:doh: :sad: