Jun 15
I have a female pt who is taking labetalol 100 mg bid. She used to take either HCTZ or chlorthalidone, but switched to labetalol when she was trying to become pregnant. She ended up not getting pregnant and then continued to take the labetalol since then. So I want to switch her to HCTZ. Beta blockers should not be abruptly discontinued because that can cause rebound HTN. So I will decrease her labetalol to 100 mg daily x1 week while at the same time taking HCTZ 12.5 mg a week. I never learned any specific way to taper off a beta blocker, but a quick search does say to decrease the dose by 25 to 50% 1 week at a time, so I think this is a good taper regimen.
