Amiodarone

Good evening,

Anyone have experience or currently taking Amiodarone?

How long?

Is there a long term maintenance dose???

Thanks!

Ron

4 Comments

Amiodarone

by golden_snitch - 2014-11-13 02:11:33

Hi Ron,

I was on Amiodarone for almost a year. After the loading dosage, I was able to reduce it to 1000mg/week, then to 800mg/week, and then to 600mg/week. It was the most effective anti-arrhythmic drug I had ever been on. While I took it, I had no arrhythmias at all.

Unfortunately, during a routine lung function test - you've got to do that every 6-12 months - we found out that Amiodarone was damaging my lungs. So, I had to get off of it. No permanent damage done, we caught it early. But my diffusion capacity, which is the important lung function parameter you need to look at, had dropped from about 86% to 48% within less than a year, so that was pretty dramatic. We triple checked, because the doctor could hardly believe it. He said that with such a low dosage of Amiodarone for such a short time he has never seen any lung issues.

A friend of mine is on Amiodarone and has been since more than 10 years. He has no issues at all. He's down to, I think, 500mg/week. Another friend was on it for 8 years, with no problems.

Just make sure that you get the routine checks of your lungs, eyes, liver, thyroid while you are on Amiodarone.

Inga

Liver & kidneys too

by Theknotguy - 2014-11-13 06:11:23

You'll also want to have your liver and kidneys checked while on Amiodarone too. They gave it to me while I was in a six day coma so couldn't tell them I wasn't supposed to take it.

When they woke me up my skin was a bright orange and my eyes were a bright yellow. They had stopped it but were concerned until my eyes and skin turned a more normal color.

For me, Amiodarone was really nasty stuff.

Hope it works well for you.

Amiodarone

by conchfm - 2014-11-13 09:11:58

I have been on Amiodarone since April 2011. I am taking 200mg per day once in the morning. They call that a maintenance dose.

Amiodorone

by ryan0165 - 2014-11-13 11:11:39

they started my loading dose at 400 mg three times and day then after about a month dropped down to 400mg per day.
I also had a ventricular ablation the same time as they started the Amio and i have been arythmia free since then. not sure whether to credit the Amio or the ablation.
Either way its wonderful being arythmia free for a year and a half.

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