After Three Weeks Of High Starter Dose Of Amiodarone I

Posted on Thu, 13 Jun 2019

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Thu, 13 Jun 2019 Answered on

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Question : After three weeks of high starter dose of Amiodarone I have come off it as getting bad sleep problems. I am now on Atenolol which I have been on before with no side effects. But still getting problems sleeping after 5am. I have never in my 78 year have I ever had sleeping problems. How long can I expect problems with sleeping as think it’s the Amiodarone in my body that is causing the problem. I tried Bisoprolol for a few weeks after coming off Amiodarone. But that did not suit me either ??

Answered by Dr. Bhanu Partap (49 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Please refer to the detailed answer below

Detailed Answer:
Hello

After going through the medical details provided by you I can understand your concern for your health and I would like to tell you that amiodarone causes sleep disturbances in around 3 to 40% of individuals.

Now as you have taken amiodarone for few weeks the complete wash off time is a bit long for this medication at around 50 days.

So it’s advisable that you should keep patience for few more days and hopefully your sleep issues will settle with the help of any other medications.

Hope to have been helpful.

Kind Regards
Dr Bhanu Partap

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad

Follow up: Dr. Bhanu Partap (1 hour later)

Thanks for reply. I will try to be patient as been off Amiodarone about a month now. But do find waking up so early and not being able to get back to sleep a very weird feeling. As I have never had problems sleeping before. So quite upsetting.

Answered by Dr. Bhanu Partap (10 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Hello again

Detailed Answer:
I can very well understand your situation but if you get frustrated things will become even worse. What you can do for sometime is to change your sleep routine. Go to bed a little early so that you can have adequate hours of sleep and when you get up just go for a walk or do early morning meditation as that will have health benefits.

Just make a modification and you will feel better.

Kind Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Nagamani Ng