Therabloc Dosage/Direction for Use

Adult Dose: Initially, 50 mg orally once daily. Maintenance dose varies from 25-100 mg daily.
Hypertension: Most patients respond to 50-100 mg orally daily. The effect will be fully established after 1-2 weeks. A further reduction in blood pressure may be achieved by combining therapy with other antihypertensive agents.
Angina Pectoris: Effective oral dose to most patients is 100 mg daily as a single or divided dose. Some patients require a dosage of 200 mg once a day for optimal effect. It is unlikely that an additional benefit will be gained by increasing the dose.
A dose of 25 mg is useful in patients with hypertension or angina who are overly sensitive to the negative chronotropic effect of higher doses (50-100 mg) of atenolol. A 25-mg dose may keep the heart rate within normal levels particularly at night and still produce the desired antihypertensive and antianginal action alone or in combination with other drugs.
Myocardial Infarction: 5 mg by slow IV injection (1 mg/min), should be given to a patient within 12 hrs of the onset of chest pain, followed by another 5 mg IV 10 min later. In patients who tolerate the full IV dose (10 mg), atenolol 50 mg should be initiated 10 min after the last IV dose followed by another 50-mg oral dose 12 hrs later. Thereafter, atenolol can be given orally either 100 mg once daily or 50 mg twice daily for a further 6-9 days or until discharge from the hospital. If bradycardia or hypotension requiring treatment or any untoward effects occur, atenolol therapy should be discontinued. An oral dose of 100 mg daily is recommended for long-term prophylaxis.