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.
Similarly, the shaky motor skills and slower reaction time common for alcohol users may get even shakier when anti-depressants are present and these responses can occur suddenly and unexpectedly. Zoloft, and the other anti-depressants like it, can also produce sedative effects; since alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, lowered heart rate and blood pressure changes are possible. This becomes even more likely as the quantity of alcohol consumed increases. Other symptoms, including headaches and sexual dysfunction, are also sometimes associated with both medications used to treat depression and drinking sessions.
Understanding the way different drugs affect one another, and affect you, is very important. This is true not only of illicit substances, but also of legal drugs, like alcohol, nicotine, and prescription and over-the-counter medications. Some drug combinations are dangerous. Your prescribing doctor should be your main source of information regarding the possible effects of the drugs s/he’s suggesting you take.
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