My father was being treated for HBP for a couple years and has had his medication switched a few times. I know that he was on metoprolol once before and it didn't help his blood pressure it only increased. He was switched to Lisenipril and that helped. However about 6 months ago he suffered from a mild stroke and then had to undergo heart surgery due to an annuerism that was found in one of his aeortic aretries. When this happened they put him back on metoprolol and he has since had problems with his blood pressure staying elevated. If he doesn't take the medication his blood pressure will decrease as they day goes on but is high upon rising. If he takes the medication he says that it seems his blood pressure stays elevated and will sometimes increase as well. He was taking half of a 25mg pill in the morning and then half of a 25mg pill at night but has since been increased to a full 25mg pill in the morning and a full 25mg pill at night. However his blood pressure is still elevated and his doctor and he do not agree that he should be switched to something else. The doctor swears that this medication doesn't elevate the blood pressure at all but expierience is saying otherwise. We know want to know if anyone else has had this issue with this medication.
Does metoprolol ever cause your blood pressure to rise instead of decrease?
Question posted by Agravated on 21 Feb 2012
Last updated on 15 November 2023
The information on this page reflects personal experiences shared by our community members. It is not reviewed for medical accuracy and should not replace professional medical advice.
39 Answers Page 3
I am a retired nurse who also was put on Lopressor for HBP. YES... it is SUPPOSE to decrease BP, but like others on here, it INCREASES mine. My BP can be normal... but when I take it, my BP rises. I do NOT care what doctors say... I KNOW what I know. I have had problems with 2 other meds that do this very same thing & it is very frustrating. The last time I talked to my doc about this, he said," Well, of course we have the problems with "generic" drugs here not being the same as "brand"... (he use to be a Pharmacist)... Now, could that be the issue here... Who knows... As a patient, all I want is normal BP after taking my prescribed medicine. I'm not sure of the solution here, but I know I am tired of this & I am not going to sit back & take this,just waiting for a stroke to happen. I have an appt in 2 weeks & hopefully something will change.
I have been on metoprolol for several years. Over time I have noticed that my blood pressure is often high in spite of taking my medication. I began tracking my BP six months ago. My pressure is always slightly elevated on rising. After taking the metoprolol it ALWAYS becomes higher, going up to around 190/106. My doctor refuses to accept this, saying I am "mistaken". He can't offer another explanation and assumes that I am not taking the meds.
I have been out of town for 3 months. Had to be seen at an ER for an unrelated issue. My BP was extremely high. I was referred to a specialist. He agreed that the metoprolol was the problem and switched me to Lisinopril. BP has been normal for the last month. When I return home I will be looking for new physician.
Metoprolol raises my blood pressure.. Had to quit Lisinopril because it raised my B>P> What to do???
I have also started this medication about 2 months ago 50mgs once a day. Blood preasure was 165/80 to 175/ 93. Now I'm taking 100mgs twice a day and some mornings when I wake up its at 186/110 with pulse of 60-70. This does not seem to work for me but the doctor said to keep trying. Wish me luck
I would insist on a different medication, or a different Doctor.
I'm a 40 year old male and I was prescribed metoprolol for hypertension although my BP reading up until then had been normal. 1 25 mil in the morning, if still high after one week increase to 2 25 mil, 1 in am, 1 in pm. After one week still high so my dosage was increased to 2 pills a day. A week later I spent a very stressful week in hospital for the delivery with my baby who had some complications but she healthy. After this week in the hospital with little sleep, my BP was 185/115, Dr. said increase to 2 pills in morning, 2 at night. After a couple of weeks still no change in BP. Dr. Increased to 3 pills in morning, 3 at night. So it was a total of 150 mil of metoprolol a day. I was also prescribed lisinipril at 20 mil once a day. Still no change in BP. Throughout this entire time on metoprolol, I had many of the known side effects and an increase in heart palpitations. I lost about 20 lbs in 6 weeks from being lethargic and loss of appetite.
My pulse was consistently in the mid 40's to low 50's and I was starting to have trouble breathing. 3 days ago I went to a new Dr. And he pulled me off metoprolol cold turkey and had me in his office to monitor me and gave me strict instructions to monitor myself at home. The last 3 days being off metoprolol, taking just lisinipril, my BP dropped to 130/90 range the first day, to the last 2 days of 117/77 range with a pulse of 65-70. Now I understand what this medication is supposed to do but this is what happened with my body and I know every one reacts differently. I might add to begin with I'm a pretty healthy guy, was carrying about 35 extra pounds. Always ate well but had a sit down job so the lack of steady activity got to my waistband.
i have high blood pressure the doc put me on 40mg of olmetec and 50 mg of metoporol that didn't work then he told me to take 75 mg of metoporol , blood pressure still high then he prescribed coversolplus hd along with my 75 g of metoporol the coversol is supposed to get rid of my fluids , i already have problems withgoing to the bathroom too much i haven't used the coversol yet afraid to
Metoprolol is a beta-blocker which by definition causes a lowering of B/P and a decrease in your heart rate. Me thinks we are quibbling about the wrong thing. As we age, the vasculature (veins and arteries) have been known to lose some of their elasticity and therefore a rise in our B/P. N medical terms, this is called arteriosclerosis or atherosclerosis, depending on which book you read. So, let's not all of us back seat docs start making decisions when we don't have all the facts in front of us to discuss. And that is the simplest cause of the med seemingly not to work. There's lots more.
Just a sweet hippie's 2 cents worth on that topic.
Have a nice day and Mary, please wish me luck at my pain docs. I'm dying.
The Sweetest In Pain Hippie
My sweetiesr happiest hippie cohort! Yes, I wish you the best of luck! Is your fentanyl not working well enough?At any rate I will cross my fingers for you if they will cross this morning! Raining, turning to snow later. Oh goddy! Had to take the dog out with am unbrella as she hates rain, even bought her a yellow doggie slicker! Lots of luck, my friend... Mary (the unhappy hippie!)
Altho', BP is down! 140/88, & have now lost 7 lbs since monday!
Good answer Suzanne. I am giving you the info to read about this meication as follows,:
https://www.drugs.com/metoprolol.html
Please follwo the doctor order to a tt. Thsi in one area I kidnof agree on with others abut thismed. Please let us know if you have futue questions...
oh my, at what point did I answer this question? must have been really early as all the typos from these old arthritic fingers do not work well, in inclement weather! Sorry... Mary
I had experience with this drug that my chest started hurting the first day I took it.
They switched drugs to another med and it had too much side effects too, so I slowly got of it too. Not taking anything now for 2 days and I noticed most of chest discomfort gone.
Wondering how long till all the pleasant side effects leave? has anyone experienced this?
Hi, I am having this problem at the moment with the Metoprolol, and yesterday my Dr wants me to think about going on a different medication because my blood pressure is still wanting to go higher. I take 75mg am and pm and my blood pressure was going down to the 120's but lately it is going into the 140's to 160's, so it seems when they up this medication my blood pressure goes down for a bit, but then it does what it is doing at the moment by going up again. So with this said I am with you on this one. Take care, Liz.
I had a bad reaction to this drug and it sent my blood pressure to stroke like levels. I had to go to ER where I was treated with another drug to bring my blood pressure back down. Sometimes people have the opposite effect that a drug is supposed to have. When I asked several doctors why this would happen to me nobody had an answer other than sometimes people have bad reactions. I'm not satisfied with that as I could have suffered a stroke from taking this medication which was supposed to lower my blood pressure but had the opposite effect instead.
Sorry, I agree with your doctor. Metoprolol causes a drop in blood pressure.
It does this mainly by slowing the heart rate and reducing the force at which the heart muscles contract.
I had a bad reaction to this drug and it sent my blood pressure to stroke like levels. I had to go to ER where I was treated with another drug to bring my blood pressure back down. Sometimes people have the opposite effect that a drug is supposed to have. When I asked several doctors why this would happen to me nobody had an answer other than sometimes people have bad reactions. I'm not satisfied with that as I could have suffered a stroke from taking this medication which was supposed to lower my blood pressure but had the opposite effect instead.
Hold on-I found the answer. Metoprolol CAN actually raise your blood pressure and I found out how. Funny thing is, Doctors will never tell you this. It was raising mine and I had to find out why. And I mean, com'on-Doctors HAVE to know this, after all they went to school for it. BETA BLOCKERS DEPLETE your coq10 so if you are taking one, you must supplement it with coq10 supplements. And what is one side effect of coq10 deficiency? HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE. Which makes beta blockers responsible. Although beta blockers may work for certain people (everyone is different) - they certainly are not working for me and I am weaning off of them. Also know that diuretics deplete your body of valuable minerals as well which is a very good recipe for heart failure. Another thing Docs won't tell you. Be careful and use naturals such as parsley, etc.
Thanks for your comment. I read somewhere on a male health forum (I am not a male) that Beta Blockers can possibly interact with thyroid hormone medicine (which I am also on). I take Armour Thyroid everyday. I don't want to pass out information as I'm not a doctor, don't know the reliability of the info that I read, but I also read that statin drugs deplete your CoQ 10 as well. So it seems possible that a combination of Statin drugs (to lower cholesterol ) and Beta Blockers for high blood pressure (which you say deplete CoQ10 also) and possibly add a diuretic in there too, and oh my gosh sounds like it could possibly be a recipe for disaster called "heart failure" due to the CoQ10 depletion. Drugs can help a lot of people and they can also harm a lot of people with bad side effects. I don't have all the answers but if people keep talking about their experiences a clearer picture could emerge about "real experiences" on these medicines that could help save others from bad effects in the future.
YES-Statin drugs also deplete coq10.
And even though there are potassium sparing diuretic(s), I am not a big fan of them either, as you have to be careful not to get TOO much potassium with those. Too much potassium can stop your heart.
Thanks for your comments. We can all learn things from each other! :-)
Also, and this is for the guys-Metoprolol is a BETABLOCLKER - Another "GIFT" that your Doctor will not tell you about with ANY Beta Blocker is a CURVED PENIS- I guarantee you will own it. Good luck with THAT.
I just wanted to get back to the few people who said their blood pressure went up on Metoprolol instead of down as I had that experience myself as reported somewhere in this ongoing discussion. I wanted others to know that I read somewhere that there sometimes could be an "interaction with caffeine and this medication". I can't verify the accuracy of this information so please do you own research and check with your doctors or pharmacists but I read this information in some e-mail I get for Resperate.com a breathing treatment approach to controlling high blood pressure device and they said the information came from The Texas Heart Institute that there could be some interaction between caffeine and beta blockers.
Maybe that is what happened to me or to others who experienced a rise in blood pressure instead of a lowering effect? I don't know but please do your own research and always check with your doctors and let them know if something isn't going right for you. Don't be afraid to keep telling your doctor something isn't right. I had to call several times and say I'm sorry I don't feel right on this medicine and luckily they told me to seek medical care which may have actually saved my life instead of the their first response which was wait a few days and you'll get used to it.
I get notifications from here that there is a question or a comment to something I am involved with. And then when I go to look, sometimes it will say that that persons questions or comments are private and I can't see them. That's all well and fine with me, the thing is-if they are gonna be private, then don't bother bugging me with it then. I don't need to know about it.
Related topics
Further information
- Metoprolol uses and safety info
- Metoprolol prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Metoprolol (detailed)
Similar questions
Search for questions
Still looking for answers? Try searching for what you seek or ask your own question.