Alcohol-Medication Interactions: Potentially Dangerous Mixes National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

Some medications—including many popular painkillers and cough, cold, and allergy remedies—contain more than one ingredient that can react with alcohol. Read the label on the medication bottle to find out exactly what ingredients a medicine contains. Ask your pharmacist if you have any questions about how alcohol might interact with a drug you are taking. Small amounts of alcohol can make it dangerous to drive, and when you mix alcohol with certain medicines you put yourself at even greater risk. Combining alcohol with some medicines can lead to falls and serious injuries, especially among older people.

Factors affecting alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm

Combining alcohol with medications used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) can cause dizziness, fainting, drowsiness, and arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). Certain types of anti-nausea medication can be used to help Alcohol and Pills someone who is trying to stop drinking alcohol. When used under medical supervision, the combination can be an effective way to treat alcohol withdrawal.

• However, even medications that don’t require a prescription can be unsafe when mixed with alcohol.
• Its prescription was permitted temporarily for the treatment of alcohol dependence (AD), now it is widely prescribed in France.
• Drinking large amounts of alcohol with cholesterol-lowering drugs may increase your risk of liver damage.

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• Combining alcohol with these medications increases the risk for an overdose and can make you feel more depressed.
• Narcan (naloxone hydrochloride) is an opioid agonist—a medication that can help counteract the effects of opioid medications such as morphine, oxycodone, and heroin.
• When administered twice daily, ibudilast reduced alcohol drinking in rats by approximately 50% and it also suppressed drinking in alcohol-dependent mice at doses which showed no effect in non-dependent mice.
• During oral administration of ARI at doses 1, and 3 mg/kg on 4% alcohol intake, ARI did not reduce alcohol intake substantially (13 and 28%, respectively).

It also includes prescription drugs used without a prescription or just for the high they cause. For people who are younger than the legal drinking age of 21, or for pregnant people, any alcohol use is considered alcohol misuse. For serious alcohol use disorder, you may need a stay at a residential treatment facility.

How to Prevent a Dangerous Interaction

One size does not fit all and a treatment approach that may work for one person may not work for another. Treatment can be outpatient and/or inpatient and be provided by specialty programs, therapists, and health care providers. A health care provider might ask the following questions to assess a person’s symptoms. Because the body’s ability to break down alcohol worsens with age, alcohol stays in the body longer.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

You can also experience drowsiness, dizziness, impaired motor control and coordination, difficulty breathing, strange behaviors, and heart or liver damage. Some of these medications can also make the effects of alcohol more extreme. In this review, we have systematically reviewed the recent findings that described the properties of drugs that have been used, currently are in use and the new drug candidates that are repurposed for the treatment of AUDs. These include many FDA-approved drugs such as anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, antidepressants, and other off-label medications. Some of these drugs have shown beneficial outcomes in various stages of clinical trials.

In an open-label study, Kranzler et al. also reported that 4 μg/kg ondansetron twice a day was suitable for the treatment of alcohol dependence in early-onset alcoholics (Kranzler et al., 2003). A higher dosage of ondansetron (16 μg/kg twice a day) combined with cognitive behavior therapy decreased depression, anxiety, and hostility (Johnson et al., 2003). In another randomized trial, men taking ondansetron (8 mg twice per day) had fewer heavy drinking days compared with those taking placebo, although they did not have increased abstinence rates. The combination of ondansetron (4 μg/kg twice a day) and naltrexone (25 mg twice a day) may be effective in treating early AUD (Correa-Filho et al., 2013).

Blood Thinners

In addition, pregabalin was more favorable in reducing the specific symptoms of anxiety, hostility and psychoticism and showed better outcome in patients reporting a comorbid psychiatric disorder (Martinotti et al., 2010). In another study, Addolorato & Leggio, 2010, has compared the effects of pregabalin with other medications for the treatment of AWS. In this study, 111 alcoholic patients suffering with AWS were randomized and given pregabalin (450mg/day), tiapride (800mg/day) and lorazepam (10mg/day) for 14 days. Among these medications, pregabalin showed significant reduction in AWS and many patients remained alcohol-free, suggesting that pregabalin has pharmacotherapeutic potential for AWS (Addolorato & Leggio, 2010). In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial during inpatient alcohol detoxification, alcohol dependent patients received pregabalin or placebo on a fixed dose schedule starting with 300 mg/day for 6 days.

Protect yourself by avoiding alcohol if you are taking a medication and don’t know its effect. To learn more about a medicine and whether it will interact with alcohol, talk to your pharmacist or other health care provider. Mutual-support groups provide peer support for stopping or reducing drinking.

Behavioral therapies can help people develop skills to avoid and overcome triggers, such as stress, that might lead to drinking. https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/boredom-drinking-and-how-to-stop-it/ Medications also can help deter drinking during times when individuals may be at greater risk of a return to drinking (e.g., divorce, death of a family member). Some people think that using prescription drugs to get high is safer and less addictive than street drugs, but that’s not true.