Amiodarone for controlling Atrial Fibrillation?
Amio. So I started to take 50mg. instead of the 200mg. of Amio, breaking the pills apart. This was my decision. Haven't even informed my doctor about this. The reason I decided to make it 50mg. is because it is easier to split the 200mg pill into 4 chunks. A friend of mine says he is taking 15mg of Amio
everyday and it has been controlling his afib for 3 years.
Now it is almost August and I have not had any PAC's or Afib.
This lower dosage of Amio must lessen the side effects of this medicine?
Any comments welcomed.
Dan.
Answer:
I understand your concern. Both amiodarone and digoxin are these kind of drugs everyone tries to avoid, like warfarin. Amiodarone has a lot of side effects, but have saved many lives. Your friend is taking 15mg or 150? Because the lowest dosage form is the 100mg tab. I think you should talk with your doctor about it. Tell him your concerns and ask him if you can have a prescription for the 100mg tablets, or you may take 200mg every other day (or 100mg every other day) or take 150mg daily. I'm giving you some ideas apart of taking 1/4 of the tablet because you can't be sure if you are really taking 50mg or 60mg or 40mg. I recommend you to talk to your doctor because that way he can follow up with you more accurately, and you shouldn't make such risky changes without the help of your doctor. I know every person is different and maybe you don't need the usual dose (200mg/daily), but your doctor should monitor you closely until you got the right dose for you.
I'm not a big fan of amiodarone, so by opinion is somewhat biased, but it's more likely luck than your do-it-yourself dosing that's kept you from having episodes., but if your heart rhythm is sinus, who really cares? Certainly you'd expect the pr0-arrhythmic risks to be a lot lower with your microdose.
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