My 90 year old, very mentally sound, grandmother was admitted to the hospital 2 days ago after complaining of severe pain in her back. While in the emergency room, after being diagnosed with a pinched nerve, her blood pressure rose and the staff doctor decided to admit her and put her on this horrible drug! He started her out with 100mg 2 times a day. My grandmother went from her usual calm perfectly sane self to a combative, babbling, lunatic within 6 hours of her first dose! It scared my aunt so bad that she started calling everyone to come say goodbye while there was still a chance that grandma would recognize us! I just knew that there was no way my completely lucid grandmother could go into dementia overnight so I told her to find out if the doctors had administered a new medication since they admitted her. They had and it was toprol XL. The stupid doctor tried to tell us that her behavior was related to a very low dose of prednisone that she taking for 2 years. We immediately demanded that the toprol be stopped and within 8 hours she started to return to us. She had spastic tremors, severe dementia, hallucinations, shallow breathing, agitation(went from laughing to combative in the space of 10 minutes!), dehydration, very frequent urination, extreme mood swings, brain fog/confusion, eyesight and hearing loss, her tongue swelled up, and her eyes were rolling back. It has been 36 hours since her last 100 mg dose and she is still fading in and out. We pulled her out of the hospital and brought her home today where the side effects have decreased but continue none the less. Since 11 this morning she has had bouts of not recognizing her own home and asking us to do things like take things out of the oven that she said she put in it, which of course she had not. I am praying to God that this medicine does not leave permanent damage. My grandmother is an unusual case for mental soundness at her age and it would be so unfair for that to be stolen away from her because of some stupid medicine that she was not only forced to take but over dosed with as well! DO NOT TAKE THIS MEDICINE WITHOUT RESEARCHING IT THOROUGHLY!