verapamil (CALAN, CALAN SR, COVERA-HS, ISOPTIN, ISOPTIN SR, VERELAN)

Drug and Dietary Supplement Profiles

A comprehensive review of the safety and effectiveness of this drug. If the drug is not a Do Not Use product, information on adverse effects, drug interactions and how to use the medication are included.

Search results below include drug profiles where your selected drug is a primary subject of discussion

Disease and Drug Family Information

Search results below include Disease and Drug Family Information where your selected drug is a primary subject of discussion

High Blood Pressure [hide all summaries]
A study of nutritional therapy showed that over one-third of people who previously needed drug treatment for high blood pressure were able to adequately control their blood pressure with nutritional therapy alone.Several factors should be taken into account when considering whether your high blood pressure should be treated. One is the benefits of the treatment for your blood pressure, which vary significantly depending on how high it is, your age, and whether you have other risk factors such as high cholesterol or are a smoker or a diabetic, and whether you have had a heart attack, heart failure, a stroke, or have kidney damage. The other consideration is the risks or the adverse effects of the treatment, which will vary depending on what is being considered.

Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles

Search results below include Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles where your selected drug is a primary subject of discussion

Oxycodone: Be Careful What You Take With It [hide all summaries]
(September 2009)
The article lists 24 drugs that can increase the toxicity of oxycodone if taken together with the drug and 11 other drugs that can weaken its effectiveness as a painkiller if they are simutaneously used.

Muscle Damage from Interactions Between Statins and Other Commonly Prescribed Drugs [hide all summaries]
(July 2009)
The article lists 38 prescription drugs that can harmfully interact with statin drugs. The article also advises that No matter what statin you are taking and regardless of any interacting drugs, you should notify your prescriber immediately if you develop muscle pain, weakness or a darkening of your urine. .

Alpha-Blockers for Prostate Enlargement: Some Important Drug Interactions [hide all summaries]
(June 2009)
Taking alpha-blockers in combination with drugs for erectile dysfunction and with other drugs can cause dizziness and fainting. In this article we will discuss alfuzosin (UROXATRAL), doxazosin (CARDURA), tamsulosin (FLOMAX) and terazosin (HYTRIN) and drugs with which they can have harmful interactions.

Colchicine Interactions with Other Drugs Can Be Life-Threatening [hide all summaries]
(December 2008)
This article lists 27 drugs that can have life-threatening interactions with the widely-used gout drug, colchicine, resulting in dangerously elevated levels of colchicine. Too much colchicine in the body leads to toxicity such as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and muscle pains. Even worse, it can impair the bone marrow’s ability to make red and white blood cells, causing severe anemia and dangerously low numbers of white blood cells. When the number of white blood cells is reduced, your body may have difficulty fighting infections. Most people who have died from colchicine toxicity have had bone marrow toxicity or had preexisting kidney problems. Every patient on colchicine — whether on other drugs or not — should be alert for evidence of colchicine toxicity as described above.

Calcium Channel Blocker Drug Interactions [hide all summaries]
(May 2008)
This article lists more than 60 prescription drugs that can interact with calcium channel blocking drugs such as amlodipine (NORVASC),diltiazem (CARDIZEM, DILACOR XR TIAZAC)or nifedipine (PROCARDIA)to either cause toxicity or to lessen the effectiveness of the calcium channel blocking drugs. Included in the lists are a number of drugs that we list in Worst Pills, Best Pills as DO NOT USE or LIMITED USE drugs. The article also explains the different kinds of toxicity that can ensue from these interactions.

FDA Issues New Warnings For Muscle Spasm Drug Tizanidine (ZANAFLEX) [hide all summaries]
(August 2007)
The muscle spasm drug tizanidine (ZANAFLEX) combined with certain other drugs could cause serious complications such as drowsiness and can dramatically lower blood pressure, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The article lists 20 drugs to avoid if you are using Zanaflex so that you avoid these potentially dangerous interactions.

Grapefruit Juice and Prescription Drugs: Some Dangerous Interactions [hide all summaries]
(February 2004)
The January 5th issue of the Medical Letter, a widely respected source of independent information about pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements, has a review of the increasingly researched problem of the interaction between grapefruit juice and many prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Like most interactions between chemicals in the body, this one involves the impairment, by grapefruit juice, of the body’s ability to metabolize many drugs, leading to higher than expected — and sometimes dangerous — levels of these drugs.This article lists the drugs.

Drug-Induced Taste Disorders [hide all summaries]
(September 2003)
DO NOT stop taking any of the drugs listed in the table without first consulting your physician. You should report any alteration in your sense of taste to your physician if you are taking a drug.

The Calcium Channel Blocker Verapamil (COVERA HS) For High Blood Pressure - Manufacturer Halts Important Clinical Trial [hide all summaries]
(June 2003)
This study does provide additional support to what the National Institutes of Health and the Health Research Group have been saying for years: low-dose hydrochlorothiazide should be the first drug used in the treatment of mild to moderate high blood pressure.

Drug Induced Psychiatric Symptoms [hide all summaries]
(October 2002)
This is the first of a two part series on drug induced psychiatric symptoms that is based on the July 8, 2002 issue of The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics. Regular readers of Worst Pills, Best Pills News will recognize The Medical Letter as a reference source written for physicians and pharmacists that we often use because of its reputation as an objective and independent source of drug information. The article lists the drugs and their psychiatric adverse effects.

Grapefruit Juice and Drug Interactions [hide all summaries]
(June 2002)
Grapefruit juice can interact with a number of therapeutically important drugs that could lead to the possibility of toxicity. These drugs are listed in the article.

Older Adults Not Getting the Most Effective Drugs For High Blood Pressure [hide all summaries]
(January 2001)
“You, or at least many of your colleagues, have failed to provide optimal care to your patients with high blood pressure.” This stinging critique of physician prescribing practices starts off an editorial in the Journal of General Internal Medicine for October 2000 that commented on a Harvard Medical School study of high blood pressure in older adults that appeared in the same issue.

Additional Information from Public Citizen

Search results below include Additional Information from Public Citizen where your selected drug is a primary subject of discussion

HRG Citizen's Petition to Require a Warning on All Calcium Channel Blocking Drugs (HRG Publication #1378) [hide all summaries]
This prescribing continues in the absence of evidence that these drugs [calcium channel blockers] prevent heart attack, heart failure, strokes or death and in the face of mounting evidence of their hazards. The FDA should also require patient package inserts for all calcium channel blockers.

Drug Recalls