How does alcohol interact with antidepressants? Do the antidepressants make the alcohol more potent, causing you to be drunk faster? I’m just curious after an observation I recently had...

Do you distinguish between tranquillizers and anti-depressants? (I'm not sure if they're the same.)

I don't know, either. I think tranquilizers are more powerful..? But this is definitely antidepressants. Lexapro, I think. Something that starts with an "L" anyway (I know, I'm really helpful).

There doesn't seem to be much consensus, does there? I did find this one, about alcohol and Zoloft, Prozak "and other antidepressants") from Columbia:Go ask Alice:

The anti-depressants seem to exaggerate the effects of the alcohol. Both affect the brain's seretonin levels. The article says the combination can alter moods.

Also it says that shakiness, reflexes, heart and blood pressure rates, can be affected.

The trouble with trying to find a general answer is that there are different classes of anti-depressants. So knowing the product's correct name is probably necessary.

Here is a list of antidepressants by category (SSRI's, MAOI's, tricyclics and others.) Several begin with 'L'. Have a look, maybe you'll recognize an l-word.

Lexapro, I'm pretty sure.
It's just that one of my friends recently went on antidepressants, and then the other night went out drinking and got REALLY wrecked. I was just wondering if maybe he didn't have all that much to drink after all and the drugs were helping to make him goofier that he would otherwise have been.
Just something I observed and was curious about.

Some antidepressants mixed with alcohol lead to more "drowsiness".

Others are effectively reduced in effectiveness with alcohol or excessive alcohol intake.

Most will, with combination of alcohol work on destroying the liver faster.

I remember seeing a comedy movie on the LATELATE about some guy who was trying to murder his wife and slipped her tranks and then she enthusiastically drank alcohol. She got manic, danced like a frenzied dervish, then suddenly passed right out. Forget the name of the movie, but I think it was from the '60's. At any rate, her reaction was just what he knew it would be to the blend of the trank she was on and the alcohol. So is that a clue?

I went on a trank in the 1960's myself, it was called Mellaril, and it was just about the time I realized my first marriage was doomed. The doctor didn't warn me about alcohol.

So maybe this was not a known side effect then, at least for that drug.

Fortunately I didn't drink any. He was very careful to warn me to taper off very, very gradually. As I recall, the final dose would be half a tablet twice a week. That's why I think if it had been a known side-effect for that drug, he would have warned me.

When I was off it, I asked him "What if the depression comes back?'
He said, 'Well, we can always put you back on the Mellaril.'
So I looked ahead at a bleak future: on and off a drug for the rest of my life, or until my marriage ended. This was not an attractive prospect.
So I said to myself, "Self, you can deal with this without drugs." And I made a plan. And I dealt with it.

Good for you!!!

i see my post got erased, so i'll clean it up.
Alcohol mixed with anti-depresents is a very thin line to walk on.
Lets hope I do this right this time.
I was never prescribed anti depresents, but I did take them anyway.
I took Zoloft unprescribed.

I strongly recomend never mixing anti depressents with alcohol. It will not be a good idea.



I got censored so that is as far as I can go.
I love this place too much to go on.

quote:

Alcohol mixed with anti-depresents is a very thin line to walk on.

It's not a "thin line", it's Russian Roulette.

Antidepressants mixed with booze is what some folks call a "Suburban Speedball" and it can be as dangerous a combination as the cocaine/heroin mix from which that name is drawn.
In the short term, it's a combo that can land you in the ER very easily.. where, if you can't tell them what you took, they'll have the devil of a time properly diagnosing and treating you... or, if you've really overdone it you can skip the ER and go straight to the morgue after your brain forgets to tell your lungs what to do... Apnea is a potential "side effect" of booze and of many antidepressants- combining the two increases the possibility
In the long term, your liver was never really designed to deal with drugs or alcohol and combining them can lead to serious damage to this organ far more quickly than either factor alone.

I don’t think anyone is advocating the mixing of anything with anything. I was just asking because of an observation I made. I didn’t mean to imply I thought it was a bright idea.

Oh, Elexina, I never meant to imply that you were saying it was a clever thing to do!
And please accept my apologies if it came across that way to you.
It's a massively serious problem that is becoming fairly common on the "club scene" and I was just amplifying on Ron's post.