sotalol/ MARY

[Guest guest]

, please give more information on the survey that you did on sotalol. Where

did you find the almost 50 people, and get their stories as to how they took the

drug, and why they got off of it. Im sure that due to all the interest in

sotalol in the last month that there are lots of others that want to know all

the details too. This will be great information for the rest of us that are

still on the drug, and give us an idea on what to look for in the future. This

is my 4th or 5th drug for a-fib, and I need to know what to look forward to, or

be warned away from. Walt

[Guest guest]

Hi Walt - I'm sure will have more detailed info but you may also like

to scan the 56 entries that have ticked sotolal in the database...

http://www.dialsolutions.com/af/database/index.html?Adv=1 & _sotalol=1#results

--

D

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 1/1/2002 3:41:44 AM Pacific Standard Time,

pondsite@... writes:

<< This will be great information for the rest of us that are still on the

drug, and give us an idea on what to look for in the future. This is my 4th

or 5th drug for a-fib, and I need to know what to look forward to, or be

warned away from. Walt >>

Walt, I want to stress that my " poll " was EXTREMELY unscientific, conducted

in a very haphazard way as a means of helping me to make a personal decision

about Sotalol. I don't think that you should be influenced by this

information in any way because if Sotalol is working for you, that is the

only point to consider. Because I think one's attitude may enter into the

effectiveness of a drug, the last thing I want to do is shake your confidence

in a drug that is working for you. I'm sorry that I even mentioned this

" poll " because I don't think any serious thought should be given to the such

an unreliable piece of data. If you become apprehensive about the drug, your

fear and anxiety could heighten your propensity toward afib. Also,

confidence in one's medication and one's doctor has been shown statistically

to influence health, probably because of that mysterious phenomenon called

the placebo effect, which is very real, I think. Therefore, because some

people have had a bad time with Sotalol does NOT mean that you will also have

a bad time. I know of one man, named , who participates in the Maze

Afib Board, who has had very good luck with Sotalol and has been taking it

for years.

I want to emphasize again that our individual reactions to these drugs are

just that: very individual. For example, the Atenolol which I have taken for

ten years with very good luck and almost no side effects, has caused nothing

but trouble for a large number of people. In fact, it's not even supposed to

work for vagal afib, and yet it has been the main source of control for my

primarily vagal afib. It's also not supposed to be given to asthmatics, but

here I am, an asthmatic, taking 150 m.g. daily. I am not going to assume

that because other people have to stop taking it, I will end up quitting it,

also. When I visited my cardiologist last Thursday, he said that he

doesn't want to change my medication at this point because he thinks the

Atenolol and Verapamil are handling the afib as well as can be expected at

this point. (I had only been in afib for two days when I saw him, though;

and he might change his mind if I continue this episode which is now in its

seventh day, nearing my previous ten day record.)

Getting back to my " poll, " I will describe it so that you can see exactly how

unscientific it was. I issued a request on the Maze Afib Board and also on

the sci.med.cardiology message board for anyone who had taken Sotalol to

report their results. About fifty people responded, and the majority of them

were very negative about Sotalol. I also kept a record of people who

spontaneously talked about their experience with Sotalol (not in response to

my questions.) However, one must consider that perhaps the negative people

were more likely to respond because they would have a proverbial " ax to

grind. " Perhaps the people who were taking Sotalol successfully were off

living their lives and not bothering with afib support groups or message

boards. I think that most people who are successfully living with afib or

controlling it with meds don't want to participate in afib groups. (My

brother, in permanent afib, is a case in point. He is busy living his life

and sees no reason to participate in afib groups.)

Also, given my emotional state at the time, which included great fear of

starting Sotalol because I had just read about Torsades Des Pointes, I

probably tended to dwell on the negative because I was looking for reasons to

justify my fear of Sotalol.

At the time, my afib had just worsened drastically (two and a half years

ago), necessitating a change in medication. My cardiologist wanted to give

my Sotalol rather than increasing my Atenolol dose because he had hopes that

the Sotalol would prevent the afib and allow me to stop taking Coumadin. I

was extremely emotional at the time because the whole concept of taking a

proarrhythmic drug was new and quite shocking to me. Now that I have

greater knowledge of proarrhythmic drugs, I am more rational about their

possibilities.

As a consequence, I am not that afraid of Sotalol and probably would consider

taking it if my current cardiologist thought it would work. As I previously

stated, he believes that Sotalol does not work as well for women, and said

that he would choose Flecainide as my next drug if it becomes necessary to

change from Atenolol. If I try either Sotalol or Flecainide and the drug

works for me, I would not consider problems that others might have with the

drug, just as I don't allow others' problems with Atenolol to influence my

confidence in that drug. If we expect negative outcomes, I think the

expectation often can cause the negative event. For that reason, I am very

sorry that I mentioned anything that might undermine your confidence in

Sotalol. I think you should just thank God that Sotalol is working for you

and expect that it will keep working. After all, if you were going to have

serious problems with the drug, they probably would have happened by now. I

will feel very guilty if you allow my random rambling to interfere with your

great success with Sotalol. I rejoice that you have found a drug that works

for you. That's what it's all about, since none of the drugs work for

everyone.

Best wishes,

in afib in Seattle