Amiodarone is an anti-arrhythmia medication that helps treat life-threatening heart problems including ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. Amiodarone is the drug’s generic name. It is also sold under the brand names Pacerone and Nexterone.

Patients take amiodarone as an oral tablet or a solution administered via injection. It can be taken once or twice daily, depending on the prescribed dose. Cleveland Clinic says that the drug works by slowing down nerve activity in the heart and relaxing an overactive heart. 

Is Amiodarone Dangerous?

Amiodarone has reportedly been linked to a number of possible dangerous side effects. Because of its potential risks, it is used in the case of patients who do not respond well to other drugs used to treat their condition.

What Are the Common Side Effects of Amiodarone?

Healthline notes that some of the milder side effects of amiodarone may go away in a few days or weeks of using the drug. 

These milder side effects may include:

• nausea
• stomach pain
• vomiting
• fatigue
• constipation
• coordination problems
• headache
• decreased libido
• uncontrollable body movements
• unusual body movements
• tremor

How Is Amiodarone Different from Other Drugs?

Very Well Health says that amiodarone is different from most cardiac drugs. It is reportedly stored in the sites as opposed to the drug stream, making it more powerful than other drugs.  Because of this, the drug does not work effectively until a patient’s tissues are fully saturated with the drug.

How Long Can You Safely Take Amiodarone?

Because amiodarone does not work effectively until a patient’s tissues are saturated with the drug, a patient may not get the benefits of the drug for a while after they began to take it.

However, the fact that the drug takes a long time to be fully effective may also have a positive effect. Because the drug is slow acting, the side effects may take months or even years to develop. This may be a comfort to patients who worry about some of amiodarone’s more serious risks.

However, this build-up of amiodarone may mean that for patients who do experience side effects, they cannot simply stop taking the medication and expect the side effects to reverse. While it may take amiodarone several weeks or months to begin to work, the drug may also take up to two months to fully leave a patient’s body.

What Are Possible Serious Side Effects of Amiodarone?

Patients who take amiodarone may face more serious side effects that may develop with longer-term use of the drug. The FDA has given the drug a black box warning, the most serious warning from the organization, says Healthline.  

Long-term use of the drug may come with side effects including:

• Lung problems: Serious lung problems may develop with amiodarone. Reportedly, lung toxicity that develops with the drug can be hard to identify and treat, which can lead to it being fatal.
• Thyroid problems: Amiodarone works as a thyroid blocker, which can cause hyper or hyperthyroidism. Unfortunately, like the possible lung problems, thyroid problems associated with amiodarone may be hard to identify and treat.
• Arrhythmia: Though amiodarone is supposed to treat heart arrhythmia, it may make the problem worse, or may cause a new heart arrhythmia to develop, says MedlinePlus.
• Other organ problems: Many organs of the body may be affected in patients who take amiodarone. Because the drug is stored in the body’s tissues, many parts of the body may be affected.

Amiodarone Lawsuits

Several lawsuits have been filed regarding alleged amiodarone side effects. According to one lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after being prescribed the drug to treat an irregular heartbeat, amiodarone caused the man to develop interstitial lung disease, which led to respiratory failure. According to them, he was never informed of the potential complications associated with the drug.

Another wrongful death lawsuit was filed by a woman and her daughter who claim that the mishandling of the drug by pharmacists led to her husband’s death. When patients stop taking amiodarone, they must be weaned off of the drug for several weeks and stick to a strict regimen, rather than simply ceasing to take the medication. According to this lawsuit, pharmacists failed to accurately fill the man’s amiodarone prescription, resulting in him being exposed to high levels of the drug midway through his tapering off process. High levels of amiodarone may be toxic for people who do not take amiodarone correctly. Due to the toxic levels he was exposed to, the man’s organs began to shut down and he died, according to the lawsuit.