Clonidine and Sotalol Interaction
Drug interaction information between Clonidine and Sotalol.
Clonidine and Sotalol have a documented moderate interaction in FDA labeling.
FDA drug labeling documents a moderate-severity interaction between Clonidine and Sotalol. Major interactions are generally avoided, moderate ones may need monitoring or a dose adjustment, and minor ones are usually low-risk. This page shows the documented mechanism and guidance. Label-documented interactions are not a complete safety review, so always confirm your own medications with a pharmacist or doctor. Educational information, not medical advice.
How They Interact
Both of these medicines slow down your heart rate, which can cause your heart to beat too slowly. Additionally, taking them together can cause a dangerous spike in blood pressure if the clonidine is stopped suddenly.
What To Do
If you need to stop these drugs, your doctor should have you stop sotalol several days before you slowly lower your clonidine dose. Monitor your heart rate and blood pressure closely.
FDA Label Information
7.6 Clonidine Concomitant use with sotalol increases the risk of bradycardia and AV block. Because beta-blockers may potentiate the rebound hypertension sometimes observed after clonidine discontinuation, withdraw sotalol several days before the gradual withdrawal of clonidine to reduce the risk of rebound hypertension.
Clonidine Also Interacts With
- Carvedilol moderate
- Metoprolol moderate
- Repaglinide moderate
- Amitriptyline minor
- Diltiazem minor
Sotalol Also Interacts With
- Amiodarone moderate
- Clarithromycin moderate
- Digoxin moderate
- Albuterol minor
- Diltiazem minor
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I take Clonidine and Sotalol together?
This is a moderate interaction. If you need to stop these drugs, your doctor should have you stop sotalol several days before you slowly lower your clonidine dose. Monitor your heart rate and blood pressure closely.
How serious is the interaction between Clonidine and Sotalol?
This interaction is classified as "moderate" severity by the FDA. Moderate interactions may worsen your condition or change how your medications work.
Why do Clonidine and Sotalol interact?
Both of these medicines slow down your heart rate, which can cause your heart to beat too slowly. Additionally, taking them together can cause a dangerous spike in blood pressure if the clonidine is stopped suddenly.
Understanding the Clonidine and Sotalol Interaction
FDA-approved prescribing information for these two drugs flags their combination as a moderate-severity interaction. Clonidine belongs to the Central Alpha-2 Agonist class and Sotalol belongs to the Class III Antiarrhythmic / Beta-Blocker class - two categories that can collide when co-prescribed. The mechanism described in FDA labeling is: Both of these medicines slow down your heart rate, which can cause your heart to beat too slowly. Severity tiers matter: major flags generally advise avoidance, moderate flags often require monitoring or dose adjustment, and minor flags may only call for awareness.
Context around a specific patient determines real-world impact. Clonidine has 29 total documented interactions on file in this dataset, and Sotalol has 13. Each additional medication compounds the interaction surface, which is why pharmacists run full-profile checks rather than evaluating one pair at a time. FDA-derived guidance for this pair is: If you need to stop these drugs, your doctor should have you stop sotalol several days before you slowly lower your clonidine dose. Timing of doses, renal and hepatic function, age, and other concurrent prescriptions all shape whether a labeled interaction matters clinically.
An interaction flag is not a verdict. A large share of labeled interactions are managed routinely in clinical practice, the fix may be as simple as spacing doses or adding a monitoring test. Others require the prescriber to choose a different medication entirely. This page surfaces FDA-sourced labeling and openFDA data for educational purposes only; it is not medical advice and cannot account for your full clinical picture. Never start, stop, or adjust either Clonidine or Sotalol based on a web page, speak with your prescriber or pharmacist before making any change.
Sources: FDA Drug Labels (SPL) via openFDA (2026). This is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider about drug interactions.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.