About Carvedilol

Carvedilol is used to treat high blood pressure (hypertension) and help prevent:

It can also be taken with other medicines to treat heart failure and to prevent chest pain caused by angina.

Carvedilol is a beta blocker. It works by slowing down your heart rate and making it easier for your heart to pump blood around your body.

It's only available on prescription. It comes as tablets.

Key facts

You'll usually take carvedilol once or twice a day.
It usually starts to work after about 1 hour. But it will take days or weeks for it to work fully.
Common side effects of carvedilol include feeling tired or dizzy, feeling sick or being sick, and diarrhoea.
Do not stop taking carvedilol suddenly. This can make your condition worse, especially if you have heart disease.
If carvedilol makes you feel tired or dizzy, do not drive a car or ride a bike. It's also best not to drink alcohol if it makes you feel dizzy.

Sexual Health Advice

Throughout this series we have help and advice on staying healthy, dealing with Sexually Transmitted Infections, the risks of each type of the most popular gay sex and what to do if the sex you have is not consentual. The topics covered in this series include:

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