What Happens When Mixing Prescription Drugs With Alcohol: Dangers & Effects

These drugs can also make the effects of alcohol more intense, leading to impaired judgment and sedation. If you have diabetes, drinking alcohol can affect your blood sugar levels. Drowsiness and dizziness are common side effects of what happens when you take pills with alcohol medications used to treat allergies, colds, and the flu.

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For example, someone who takes Xanax and alcohol, or Adderall and alcohol is probably trying to obtain a specific state of intoxication. However, we must not forget about combinations such as Advil and alcohol, Tylenol and alcohol, or Benadryl and alcohol. With even more alcohol, you will notice you can’t coordinate your muscles as well, you might slur your speech, become dizzy, forget things that have happened, and even fall asleep.

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• Side effects may be increased by drinking alcohol while taking valerian root.
• Acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol, is metabolized by the liver and can cause liver damage when taken in high amounts or for too long.
• So, mixing the two together increases the likelihood of overdose on either substance.
• Some arthritis medicines, when combined with alcohol, can cause ulcers, stomach bleeding, and liver damage.
• Use caution if driving the next day and with other activities requiring complete mental alertness.
• Frequent or regular use of both sedative sleeping pills and alcohol can result in even more severe, or complicated withdrawal when attempts are made to quit using them.

For example, OTC painkillers (including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can cause a range of symptoms from gastrointestinal upset to bleeding and ulcers in the stomach to tachycardia (racing heart). One of the deadliest combinations is alcohol and narcotic pain medications. On their own, opioids can cause drowsiness, dizziness, slowed or impaired breathing, impaired motor control, abnormal behavior, and memory loss. Medications used to treat insomnia or help you fall and stay asleep should never be mixed with alcohol. The sedating effect of these drugs can be increased by alcohol, leading to slowed or impaired breathing, impaired motor control, abnormal behavior, memory loss, and fainting. Valerian root is an herb that promotes sleep and helps relieve anxiety.

Drink With Pills: What happens when you mix Prescription Drugs and alcohol?

Even if a person does not stop all use of alcohol or drugs, maybe we can convince them to stop combining the two together. There are medications that may be prescribed to a person to help them reduce their alcohol consumption. For example, if a person is arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI), the charges may be worse if both drugs and alcohol are detected in their system. The risk of blackouts, fall injuries, overdose, and other serious consequences is greatly increased by mixing sedatives with alcohol. Just because alcohol is legal, and a prescription drug is legally prescribed does not mean that it is in any way safe to mix them together.

• If you have a history of alcohol use disorder or problem drinking, you should inform your doctor of this issue, as it can change how your physician manages prescriptions.
• Consuming alcohol while taking lithium or valproic acid can also cause drowsiness, dizziness, and tremors.
• Combining medicines for managing general pain, muscle ache, fever, and inflammation with alcohol can cause stomach upset, bleeding, ulcers in your stomach, and rapid heartbeat.
• There areseveral documented casesof people sleepwalking, sleep-eating and even sleep-driving on the popular sleeping medication Ambien.
• If you’re taking medication and you don’t know how it reacts to alcohol, don’t consume alcohol.

Cholesterol Medications

Some people may also experience impairment in thinking, judgment, memory or reflexes. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist if you have any questions or concerns. You may feel more drowsy, dizzy, or tired if you take a benzodiazepine with alcohol. You may have trouble concentrating or thinking, lack good judgment or experience impairment to your memory or reflexes. If you have taken a medication for sleep, you should not drive, operate machinery or do any other hazardous activity.

• While benzodiazepines are generally considered to be short-term meds, some doctors do prescribe them for long-term use.
• It is extremely important to take prescription drugs according to your doctor’s instructions, and for many prescription medicines, this means avoiding alcohol.
• Angina (ischemic chest pain) is caused by reduced blood flow to the heart.

The Recovery Village has caring professionals who can guide you through treatment options and help achieve recovery.Contactone of our compassionate staff members today to start your recovery. While these prescription medications all aid with sleep, other sleep aids may be purchased over the counter. The most common over-the-counter sleep aids include melatonin and medications containing diphenhydramine, which is the active ingredient in Benadryl. Is it bad to have a drink from time to time if you have chronic pain?

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You should also avoid the use of alcohol while being treated with the non-benzodiazepine medications, (often referred to as the “Z-drugs”). Alcohol can further increase the nervous system side effects of these drugs such as drowsiness, dizziness, and trouble concentrating. Older people are at particularly high risk for harmful alcohol–medication interactions. Aging slows the body’s ability to break down alcohol, so alcohol remains in a heroin addiction person’s system longer. Older people also are more likely to take a medication that interacts with alcohol—in fact, they often need to take more than one of these medications.

Blood clot medications

If you or a loved one are struggling, we are here to help, and taking the first step is easier than you may think. He said there’s an immense need for new treatments for alcohol use disorder. Some dietary supplements can cause your medications to work differently. There are people who take benzodiazepines, such as Valium, every night to help them sleep. While benzodiazepines are generally considered to be short-term meds, some doctors do prescribe them for long-term use. The issue is that the withdrawal symptoms after a night of drinking can be very unpleasant for an alcoholic.

• Drowsiness, dizziness, and slowed or labored breathing can all be side effects of mixing certain anxiety and epilepsy drugs with alcohol.
• They can provide personalized guidance based on your specific medications and health status.
• As with any medicine, do not take a higher dose than prescribed by your doctor.
• Even though some research suggests that moderate alcohol consumption is heart healthy, certain medications and alcohol have the capacity to interfere with your successful treatment.
• If you have a medical condition (such as atrial fibrillation) that puts you at risk for developing a blood clot, your doctor might prescribe anticoagulant medications to “thin” your blood.

Can You Drink Alcohol While You’re on a Medication?

He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, a member of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association, and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Nial is the chief scientific officer of Vaihea Skincare LLC, a director of SetDose Pty Ltd a medical device company, and a Standards Australia panel member for sunscreen agents. Nial regularly consults to industry on issues to do with medicine risk assessments, manufacturing, design, and testing. Medications such as gabapentin and pregabalin (Neurontin and Lyrica, respectively) are also prescribed to treat some forms of anxiety. Research shows they are beginning to hold promise as an effective anxiety treatment.