Q: I’m on birth control pills, is there any danger if I drink alcohol?

A: Taking birth control pills (oral contraceptives) slows down the rate at which alcohol is eliminated from the body. A woman who is on the pill can, therefore, expect to feel the sedating effects of alcohol for a longer period of time than a woman who is not.

Q: Are there bad interactions between anti-depressants and alcohol?

A: Yes, there can be. Rule of thumb is that caution should always be taken when mixing any medication with alcohol or other illicit drugs.  My brother-in-law who is a doctor once said about alcohol and medications – “It’s often difficult to tell a person exactly what will go wrong, but it is usually considered a bad idea”.  A high percentage of emergency room visits associated with drugs are because of drug interactions.

Alcohol is incompatible with many of the drugs used to treat depression. It can intensify the sedative effects of some antidepressants.  Tyramine, a substance found in beer and wine, can interact with MAOIs (one type of anti-depressant) potentially causing a dangerous rise in blood pressure.  When there is a noticeable reaction from mixing alcohol with anti-depressants, it’s often an amplified response to the alcohol, i.e., one drink may end up feeling like two. If you usually feel tired, or even a bit depressed, after drinking, then you might feel even more so if you’re on anti-depressants. Zoloft (generically known as sertraline) is an anti-depressant in the class known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. It affects your brain’s ability to absorb serotonin, which acts as a neurotransmitter transmitting nerve impulses between nerve cells and affecting mood. Alcohol also affects serotonin levels in your brain by altering your brain’s production of it. That’s why using these two drugs together could produce unexpected and unwanted emotions. The use of alcohol could also possibly affect Zoloft’s ability to do what it is supposed to do.