I sent you a PM, Ger57....just curious about the 6 weeks thing. Thanks all for the responses... I ended up back on 50mg atenolol, my original dose. It's been 2 weeks, and while my heart rate and BP is back under control, my body still feels pretty out of whack, my periods are all messed up, I am still having migraines, etc. Feel like coming off it relatively quickly in late April really messed me up as I was on it for more than just cardiac reasons, also as a migraine preventative
I take the same as Rita when I get up in the morning, with the same result. Been on it for years.
On the odd occasion when I feel a bit 'quivery' or have been through particularly hard day physically or emotionally I take another 1/4 tab (12.5mg) in the evening before bed. For SVT's. Without it I just couldn't do anything without my heart just taking off.....up to 220bpm. Just raising my arms above my head to change a light bulb for instance.
I, actually, take 12.5 mg of atenolol and it works great for me! I take it for my heart rate, but after as many years as I've been on it, it no longer lowers my BP.
I think in general you can say that the effect of medication slowly wears off. As a result from that slight variations in blood pressure over the day, due to wearing off of the medication will happen.
Taking half the dose 2x/day is probably better than 1x/day full dose for stable bp.
Question is if the benefit is big enough for accepting the extra hassle of taking 2x/day. I still assume that in most cases the 1x/day regime is sufficient for a "fairly constant" bp.
You take Atenolol not for bp but for tachycardia. I know that Atenolol is often described 1x/day for bp lowering and 2x/day for angina. I can imagine that a big shot of the stuff is more efficient for tachycardia than 2 small shots. Therefore, if you want to change the regime, I suggest you take it up with your doctor.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Heart-Disease/Exercising-with-high-blood-pressure/show/2604972
To compare blood pressures at different time of the day you will at least have to measure for a couple of days and average the results to be accurate. Otherwise other things might influence the result too much and lead to false conclusions.