Amlodipine and Atrial Fibrillation?

Treatment and medication
1

I am 45 years old and I have been on 5mg amlodipine for about 2 years for a blood pressure that tends to spike. I was first on Lisinopril and then Valsartan though I had to stop those medications within a few weeks of starting due to tachycardia/palpatations which prevented me from walking any significant distance at one point.

During my time on amlodipine, I commented to my GP about a fluttery/thumpy heartbeat. These were first diagnosed as ectopic beats and reasonably common. Time has moved on and (to make a long story short) a cardiologist has now diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF). ECGs taken previous to starting any blood pressure medicine as part of routine health exams were normal.

I would be very grateful for any similar experiences anyone has had regarding a suspicion that calcium channel blockers like amlodipine led to an Atrial fibrillation/Atrial flutter diagnosis or even an increased awareness of an arrhythmia in your heart rate.

2

Hi, yes, I can relate to what you are going through. I have been on amlodipine for around six years now, and have gradually developed an extremely irregular heartbeat. I get flutters and thumps hundreds and hundreds of times a day.

I have tried to put up with them, but it's getting to the point where it is impossible to do that any more, and I know I have got to go and get this sorted out. I'm frightened of having a heart attack to be honest. I suspect amlodipine, as I have had horrible side effects from other blood pressure medications before, but I am extremely wary of telling my doctor that I think it's amlodipine, as one doctor previously was rather nasty with me, saying it wasn't any of my meds causing my problems, it was me imagining my symptoms! I had to change my doctor, as I couldn't trust her any more, but I am now frightened to say anything to my new one. What a position to be in.....frightened of your own doctor :roll:

However, having read your post, I am more certain it is that that is causing my heartbeat irregularities, so I am going to pluck up the courage to say something. And even if it isn't that, it still needs sorting out, it isn't right at all.

Have your doctor and consultant accepted the role of amlodipine in your atrial fibrillation? If so, are they changing it for something else? I'd be interested to know, thank you. And good luck, I hope you feel better soon

3

Hi- Thanks for the reply. My cardiologist was equally as reluctant to entertain my question that amlodipine might cause irregularities. His line of reasoning is based on the catchall that hypertension is said to \"cause\" irregularities like atrial fibrillation so linking it to amlodipine is circumstantial. I have read around many sources which do indicate that palpations and irregularties are side effects of amlodipine though at a level of perhaps 1 in 1000. Whether this means a more or less constant irregularity or one that comes and goes is not clear. Over the past month, I have cut out stimulants like coffee, soft drinks, and chocolate. I have significantly increased my water intake. I have also reduced my amlodipine from 5mg to 2.5mg after chatting with my GP. I have noticed a slight improvement in the irregularities without an increase in my blood pressure. An alternative plan will be to move to a beta blocker.

I understand what you are saying regarding what you say to your doctor in the half chance that they will go into hyper defensive mode. I walk a thin line there as I try to gather as much information as I can in an attempt to develop a big picture without burning bridges. A balance needs to be struck with GPs. There is their experience on one hand but equally so there is the fact that you are the best source of information regarding how your body is responding to pills and other forms of treatment even if it goes against current thoughts. I am glad you are going to discuss your irregularity with your GP and I do hope the new one is a bit more open minded. The tension it is causing you can not be helping the situation.

I will keep posting here as I gather new information from both my GP and my cardiologist.

4

Hi again, yes please keep posting as you find out more things of interest.

I can never be 100% certain it is the amlodipine causing me so many problems, as I find that a pattern seems to be emerging. I find that the skipped heartbeats lessen around four hours after I have taken my medication for an hour or two, then gradually increase until it is time to take my next dose. So whether it is the tablets causing it all, or whether my blood pressure is rising as the effect of the dose is wearing off it's hard to say. I don't feel that amlodipine gives me good 24 hour cover. If it's my bp causing these heartbeat irregularities I'm very concerned. But I've had awful side effects from other meds. Propranolol gave me 24/7 stomach problems, and I used to literally hallucinate at night, seeing things coming out of the walls etc. Lisinopril was fine at first, then when my dose was raised from 5mg to 10mg I started to feel dreadful an hour or so after taking the tablet. Pounding heart, sweating, red face, feeling faint. I would have to lie down for two hours. Impossible to live with. Olmesartan had similar effects. I was at my wit's end. This is when my doctor got fed up with me and accused me of exaggerating things. It's so frustrating :cry: Do you have any other side effects from amlodipine other than the possible link to your heart irregularities?

I was also, along with my amlodipine 5mg, on doxazosin 4mg, which made me feel as if my head was bursting. I've managed to come down to 1mg as I've lost a lot of weight recently, but I still don't know if they are giving me some problems. It's so hard to know what's causing what :roll:

Anyway, sorry for going on. As I say, I will be reading your posts with interest, and seeing my doctor too to try and sort this out once and for all.

5

Hi- I would say that amlodipine also caused a bit of lethargy but the heart thumps are the most noticeable side effect for me.

My mother also took amlodipine for awhile but it caused severe constipation so she came off of that. She is now on the beta blocker atenolol. The constipation for her went away soon after quitting the amlodipine. She also noticed that a very small dose of atenolol reduces her heart rate from an average of 90 to around 60.

I am chatting with my GP this week. My guess is that with the diagnosis of AF, there will be a push to put me on propanolol though I will tread very careful in light of the side effects you mention. How much propanolol where you taking on a daily basis?

Good luck with your GP.

6

I have been on different doses of propranolol...as low as 40mg some years ago, along with the other med I was on at the time, lisinopril I think, and I had problems with the 'seeing things' in the night. It was usually just before I fell asleep, and I would wake several times in the night with the same problem. Very scary.

Then about 18 months ago I was on 120mg, when I was taken off 10mg amlodipine because my legs were constantly swollen. The hallucinations returned big time, and I then got the stomach problems. Tummy ache and permanent diarrhoea rather than constipation. Lovely. sad So....I had to come off them, and I was put back onto 5mg amlodipine and 4mg doxazosin. It was after this that I developed the irregular heartbeat. I also feel extremely tired, and very detached from things, as if I am in a dream. I'm just fed up of feeling very old :roll:

7

My GP agrees that propranolol now has too much evidence linking it to nightmares and hallucinations as you say. So we have agreed to come off the amlodipine and go onto the beta blocker Bisoprolol. Perhaps I am trading one set of issues for another, but I welcome the opportunity to at least postpone the amlodipine. I haven't done much reading up on alpha blocker doxazosin. Has this choice of an alpha over a beta been explained to you ?

8

The doctor who put me onto doxazosin was the first one I had seen at the new surgery after I changed doctors. At the time I was on 120mg of propranolol and desperately needed to come off them due to the side effects. All she said was that she had few options due to my insistence of previous bad side effects from other medications, and alpha blockers were pretty much the last thing left on the list. Although, she did say she felt that beta blockers 'don't work'. I think there are a growing number of gp's who are turning against beta blockers, and she is obviously one of them. So...it wasn't so much a positive move forward as a clutching at straws :?

9

I was on Amlodipine for 6 weeks for suspected high B.P. and the side effects were severe constipation, terrible nightmares and swollen ankles. Fortunately, as I suspected, I have since been tested (24 hr monitor) and found not to have high BP. I suffer from \"White Coat Hypertension\" which means it's only raised when I'm at the doctors.

However, I do have tachycardia and have been taking verapamil for it for over a year and have no side effects at all. As verapamil also works for high BP perhaps you could ask to try that in a higher dose to see if it works for both the tachycardia and the B.P. Good Luck.

10

I googled "Does amlodopine cause atrial fibrillation" in the forlorn hope that I might be the only one who thought so. I find, however, that there is a considerable body of opinion of the same mind. I started taking "amlodopine" about two years ago, I was ok for the first year but then started with occasional palpitations which gradually increased in frequency until they were a daily occurrence, so 6 months ago I stopped taking them but I am still having episodes of what my doctor has now diagnosed as a.f. I am now concerned that amlodopine has caused some long term damage to my heart. I have been taking Lisinopril for 20+ years for BP without any side effects and this has kept my BP under control. I wonder if Gandalf and Flutterbee who posted comments in 2009 on this site have more up to date experiences to share? I now face a possible lifetime on Warfarin thanks to amlodopine! (my opinion)

11

i thought i was going cray! i hate going to the docs bcs they always make you feel its not true, but i feel its because they dont want you to bring a lawsuit against them. i suffer from vertigo and it causes my bp to raise very high. i was put on this medication and have the same symptoms as everyone has described so thoroughly but this time i feel my heart acting really funny and it scares me. i looked it up to find this is one of the side effects!! as if i/we dont have enough problems!! i mean its not just a few occurrences its all day long and some chest pain along with pain in my arm. i hate the drug community and pharmaceutical companies bcs all they care about are the billions of dollars they make off of sick people. instead of trying to have preventive medicine and focus on cures, this is the world we live in and its sad!! i even heard years ago that there was a cure for diabetes, but the dude was paid off by these people to keep it under wraps!! God help us all!!!

12

Yes, it is true amlodipine is known to cause rapid heartbeat and irregular hearbeats. It has done this for

me at the lowest dose 2.5 mg.

The doc was pleased that the blood pressure had gone so low, he increased the dose to 5. mg, which

increased the heart pounding and quadrupled the irregular heartbeats on the very first day.

I took that dose two days, then after nearly passing out while sitting at the computer, I cut it in half for two

more days with no reduction in those symptoms.

I then cut the dose to 1/4 of the tablet for two more days, then stopped completely.

The symptoms did not stop, as I expected.

It has been just at two and one half months since I stopped using amlodipine and the symptoms are

slowing down, but still not completely gone.

This is very concerning, and I am hoping the medication has not caused permanent heart damage, as I did

not have heart trouble prior to amlodipine.

This was the last of a number of blood pressures medications I have taken - all with one deleterious

side-effect or another.

I am now taking nothing, and waiting it out.

It is not your imagination!

13

I confirm your experience. I have no doubrt that amlodipine causes pulse irreguilarities and that those irregularities cease within days of discontinuing the drug. I was prescribed one 5mg tablet daily about 5 years ago by a doctor who, after prescribing it, did not monitor the results. 

After a few months, I began to notice that my heartbeat was irregular in the early mornings. Lying in bed on waking, on my left side, I could hear the heart beating. Rate was between 40 and 50 per minute. Quite often, the pulse would miss a beat. Sometimes it would miss two beats. I feared it would miss a third and I would die! The GP - not the one who prescribed amlodipine, said it was nothing to worry about and he also had arrhythmia.

Then, one morning, I fainted while cleaning my teeth.  Symptoms were classic for altitude sickness and lack of blood to the brain as in a high 'G' turn in an aircraft. When I regained consiousness, palpitations were evident. My wife made me consult my GP who referred me to a cardiologist. While waiting for my appointment with the latter, I stopped taking the amlodipine and lisinopril. The arrhythmia reduced progressively over a month and is now absent. First of all, the heart stopped missing beats. Then the arrhythmia reduced and now is not detectable by my blood pressure monitor or by me. I recommenced the lisinopril. The arrhythmia has not returned. QOD the amlodipine was the cause. 

My cardiologist tells me the faint "cannot be attributed to amlodipine which does not have a significant impact on the rhythm/rate of the heart." I do not think the evidence, either in my own experience or in the records on this and other sites bear this out. 

14

See my reply to gandalf. Do what I did and you will be much safer. 

15

Forget propranolol, dangerous drug, serious cardiovascular side effects, some permanent.  Caused palps and bradycardia in me after only one month and fairly low dose.  Heart rate is still very low after one month of being of the stuff.  If you've had other cardio side effects don't go near this non selctive beta blocker it's lethal.  All BB are dangerous but this one particularly so.

16

I was put on amlodipine about 5-6 years ago. I am able to hear my pulse when lying in bed early in the morning. I noticed my pulse rate was about 40-45, weak and irregular. Often a pulse or two would be missed (about 1 in 20). My GP (not the prescriber) told me this was not anything to worry about. That was a couple of years ago.

3 months ago, I got up, shaved and began to clean my teeth, standing in front of the basin. Vision greyed and I fainted. Unconcious for several minutes and then unable to stand, I was covered with sweat and very cold. I crawled into my bed. Recovered in half an hour or so, I was taken to A&E. ECG, etc. Later I read the instructions accompanying my blood pressure tablets, amlodopine and lisinopril and discovered arrhythmia is indicated for amlodopine for about 5% of patients. So I stopped taking it. The arrhythmia began to decrease. First, the heart stopped missing two beats and then missed none. This took a couple of weeks. The irregularity of the pulse lessened. My blood pressure monitor stopped showing traces of arrhythmia. In order to avoid going back on a drug I tried a supplement, Purmedica's Systolex. I am now into my second month with this product and my blood pressure is now mostly well within normal limits. (I used Purmedica's product because of the success with which I used their gout treatment supplement, which has eliminated almost all of the deposits around the affected joints, deposits built up over 30 years of gout attacks, improved joint mobility and seems to have prevented further attacks.)

My cardiologist has told me that amlodipine does not cause arrhythmia. It appears that he has failed to read the literature about side effects and so had my GP. Well, so had I for about 6 years and such negligence almost, I think, killed me.

Before you take a new medicine, read the leaflet that comes with it. Thoroughly!

17

I am certain I also had issues with amlodipine.  I had been on a 5mg dosage for some time and it worked well.  My blood pressure had been rising so my doctor raised my dosage to 10mg.  Within a short time my blood pressure dropped below 100 and I was experience poor endurance.  My doctor did an ekg and discovered the Afib.  I stopped taking amlodipine entirely, but the symptoms remained and my pulse dropped causing me to pass out and go to the ER.  I am now on a pacemaker.  My doctor has admitted off the record that the amlodipine could be the cause, but my heart doctor totally ignores me when I claim amlodipine is the cause.  I truly believe it its.  The timing of the increased dosage and the onset of Afib is too much of a coincidence.

18

More than 2 years since my last posting. However, as far as my atrial fibrillations are concerned things are progressively going from bad to worse. When I started with what I called palpitations more than 3 years ago they only occurred every 6-8 weeks now I have an episode of a.f.at least every week and last week I had 3. That is despite being on a double daily dose of bisoprolol. I find it difficult to even walk during one of these episodes.                                                                           I am now more convinced than ever that my problems originate with the prescription of Amlodipine. I only wish I had not persevered through the painful(blue) swollen ankles and the nightime pounding heartbeat (which I did because I could see that it did reduce my B P- but at what cost?) Then the a.f. started, the damage seems to have been done and it is too late. The a.f. overcomes the limiting effect of the bisoprolol betablocker despite the dose being increased.                 Prior to the Amlodipine and despite my slightly elevated BP(145-150 over 85-90) I never had any palpitations or any discernable heart problems. I have always exercise daily and taken 75mg dispersible asprin for more than 30 years.                                                                I am certain that Amlodipine has dangerous side effects which while not affecting everyone should be taken note of by health professionals (note all the comment on this and associated forums on UK Patients).                                                                                            Nothing brings home the realization of your own mortality than an irregular heartbeat.                                                                                                               Roman.

19

Evoc, please note my posting to Peter Hirsch on 1/12/14. Roman

20

Hi,

I wish I had read all these before taking this awful Amlodipine.

Too late for me now, I have NOW got the dreaded AF and now on Bisoprolol and warfarin for the duration !!!!!   bugger !

Jim B.