Toprol-XL and lethargy

Chest Pain (external), shallow breath, shortness of breath, anxiety, mild depression, lethargy.

I have just started taking Toprol XL 50 MG because of a scary Atrial Fibrillation episode last week.

When I was 30 my Doctor opter to put me on Norvasc to "control" my BP. My BP was 130/73. A couple of years later my new doctor changed me to Lotrel 5/10. My BP stayed in the same range despite me exercising less and gaining weight, and drinking more. Basically, I did all the wrong things. Despite that I never had any side effects from either Norvasc or Lotrel. Only other thing to note is I do have sleep apnea, untreated as of yet.

Well, last week as I stated, I had an episode and went to the ER. They pushed Lopressor and eventually Toprol to get my A-Fib back to level. I was completely freaked out of course. I went to my doctor the next day and he prescribed Toprol XL 50 MG at bedtime, and to stop the Lotrel.

I have been taking this drug now for 4 days. Here is my experience...

I take the pill with dinner at around 9 pm. I then go to bed soon after. While I lie in bed, I feel like I need to consciously breath or I will stop breathing. If I get up this feeling goes away. My breaths are very shallow. I have sleep apnea, so I can visualize myself falling asleep and not breathing. I do have some anxiety surrounding this, but I would not say it is out of ordinary. Right now it is 3:33 am and I cannot sleep due to this issue. Every time I start to fall asleep I jolt back awake because I feel like I am not breathing.

In the past three mornings, I wake up and feel anxious and downright depressed. I feel tired and wrung out. This appears to last until approximately 1 pm and then things start looking up. Then at 9 pm the whole cycle starts again.

My mother and father take this medication. My father takes 2 * 100MG and he does not complain of side effects. My mother takes 2 * 50 MG and she has similar side effects as what I have described.

Wow. Thank god for this Bulletin! I was diagnosed with hypertension at age 28
and tried a variety of drugs with no control over the BP. So, about 2 1/2 - 3 years ago, I was prescribed 100MG of Toprol XL which seemed to control it well, but with debilitating long term illness. I had no idea until today that Toprol XL was causing similar grief to others. The horrible symptoms that I have been experiencing now for several years are Extreme Chronic Fatigue, Profuse Cold Clammy Sweating, Dizzy spells, weight gain, seeing specs of light and thousands of eye floaters, severe depression, muscle aches, headaches.

After reading about others with similar side effects, I am confident that it's from this medication. I have had all kinds of testing done including T3 & T4 Throid levels and a full array of blood work with NO LUCK! Regardless of the consequences, I am going to quit this damn medicine today because it appears to take 5 weeks or so to get it out of the body to notice a difference. I am so desperate for change. It is ruining my life because I can
't wake up, I'm always tired even though I get 10-14 hours of sleep. My wife and kids are bummed because I have no energy to do anything, EVER!

If you have any other suggestions or would like to comment about this.

Sincerely,

Sean

36 yr old female. Was started on Toprol -XL in Sept 07 during my angiogram to relax my heart and lower my heart rate. Have also been on Lisinopril for several years prior for hypertension. Since starting the Toprol, I have had increasing depression, lethargy, shortness of breath, chest pains that have worsened, my feet are FREEZING all the time, I have gained 17.5 pounds, my fasting blood sugar is now up to 160-170 range, I have had many headaches (like the kind you get when your BP is sky high) and the other thing I have noticed is that my BP is bouncing ALL over the place. Last week it was down to 90/54 and I felt horrible. Then it will go up to 140/99(ISH). Find it really hard to finish my own sentences lately, and if I had nothing else to do, I could easily sleep 12-16 hours a day-everyday. I am down to 12.5 mg a day, and will be speaking to my cardiologist about this asap, had NO idea that Toprol could have been the culprit until I was told about this site. Thank you to everyone for sharing their stories, and good luck and blessings to all.

I have been on Toporal XL 50 mg daily for 3.5 years. I have SVT & A-fib. I had ablation 2 years ago & it was not successful. Now I also take flecanaide 200 mg daily.
Since I started this drug I have gained 15+ pounds and have been working out harder than ever before...so frustrated. I experience all the same symptoms: fatigue, tiredness, especially walking up stairs, IBS, lethargy, on and on. I've tried to ween off but keep going back because my heart starts racing.
I'm going to try again.
Alcohol really triggers the rapid heart rate so I'll have to give that up too. I enjoy a little red wine and now that's gone!
This is such a drag.

I am a 34-year old women who started 50 mg of Toprol-XL 4 days ago for a rash of panic attacks I experienced earlier this week, after having high blood pressure and occasional panic attacks in the last 3 months. Since then, I've had migranes for the past 2 days, bad allergies, stomach pain, loose bowel movements, slight difficulty breathing, frequent urination, and tiredness/lethargy during the day with trouble sleeping at night. I was already feeling strange my 2nd day on it and called my internal medicine doctor, who, of course, told me to stick with it. At this point, I'm ready for safer, natural alternatives. I'm will call the doctor tomorrow to tell him that my mind is made up and ask for instructions on how to wean off of it safely.

I am a 40-year-old female taking 50mg/day of Toprol (for HBP) and have experienced the following side effects:

Fatigue
Lethargy
Pain in legs and arms
Loss of breath (even when walking very short distances)
Odd dreams/nightmares
Rapid weight gain (despite no change in eating/exercising habits)
Unusually heavy menstrual flow
Nosebleeds

The cure is worse than the disease! :-(

Has anyone else had trouble with heavy and/or thick menstrual flow while taking this medication? I am 40 years old and have never had this problem prior to taking Toprol.

I have also experienced the feelings of lethargy, as well as rapid weight gain and bizarre dreams.

I have taken metoprolol for several years starting while I was serving in the army (late twenties). Now I am 37 years old. The first problem I encountered was lethargy, which forced me to cut it in half and take at different times of the day. But the worst problem by far is numbness in the hands. just holding a pen or pencil will cause fingers to go numb. I am a guitar player but that is quickly becoming an impossible task. It just recently occured to me that a drug change may reverse this- if anyone has an anecdote please contact me, thank you.

In August 2005, I nearly fainted from dehydration and went to the ER. I am a 47 YO Female and perimenopause may be a factor in my condition. At the ER, they found my BP was 230/130 and put me in the hospital overnight until I could have a stress test late the next day. Then I was put on 25 mg Toprol. My BP came way down, but within a week or two, I was lethargic, couldn't wake up, had no personality, couldn't accomplish the most mundane things. I also had frequent panic attacks that would send me back to the ER with BP in the 200 range. At the beginning of Nov., I went to 1/2 Toprol (12.5 mg) and felt much better (better than dead, that is) but still had surges in BP to 200 3 or 4 x a month; depression, and lethargy. At the end of Feb, my doc had enough, and this is day 3 w/o Toprol---I take Alprazolam 3X a day until we figure out what is next. Eating high-potassium foods, no alcohol, no caffein, has my BP in the 125-140/70-90 range the last few days. I FEEL LIKE A HUMAN BEING AGAIN! The headaches are awful, but I don't care, and they are getting better. Toprol is a bad drug because it stops adrenoline instead of regulating it. None of my friends on BP medication of other types have these problems! Get off Toprol!

I started taking toprol (50 mg) a couple of years ago for mitral valve proplaspe and a racing heartbeat and stopped because of confusion and lethargy. I am now back on it and am experiencing the same confusion and cloudy thinking. Does anyone know if there is another beta blocker with different side effects? Thanks!

I take it for Mitral Valve Prolapse

Shortness of breath - It feels like my lungs are too small to take a big breath that I need, especially when yawning.

Lethargy

Difficulty sleeping as sound as I used to before taking 25mg a day.

Higher body temperature, especially while sleeping.

Has anyone experienced vaginal yeast infections on this medication?

Other than that (possible) side effect, here are the ones I have experienced: depression, apathy, lethargy, extreme fatigue, achiness, bloating, "heavy" feeling, difficulty with weight loss, memory problems (worsening-I had some memory problems before).

I am 45 years old and I take Toprol for a severe cardiac arrhythmia. I have a history of depression (actually, I have bipolar disorder) but my depressions have usually presented differently. This one is characterized by amotivationalism, while the others have had more sadness/worthlessness/guilt. Right now, I have no desire to do things that used to help me in previous depressions, such as reaching out to friends.

It has been a relief to read these posts and see that my symptoms are typical.