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Consuming alcohol while taking medication can either enhance or diminish the effects of the drug, and it may also introduce additional side effects.
How Alcohol and Medications Interact
According to Dr. Niall Vitta, the lead author of the study, the chemical substances in our brains maintain a delicate balance between excitation and inhibition. Excessive excitation can lead to seizures, while too much inhibition can result in sedative effects and depression.
Alcohol amplifies inhibition in the brain, leading to relaxation and a disregard for social norms after just a few drinks. The more alcohol enters the body, the less control a person has over their muscles. They may slur their speech, experience dizziness, and eventually forget everything that has happened and fall asleep.
Alcohol can affect how medications work in the body, particularly how they are absorbed from the stomach. If a medication has similar side effects to alcohol, those effects may be intensified.
However, not all side effects overlap with those of alcohol. For instance, mixing hard liquor with Ritalin negatively impacts the heart by increasing heart rate and raising the risk of a heart attack.
Combining alcohol with ibuprofen can lead to stomach upset and gastrointestinal bleeding, as reported by Science Alert.
Additionally, alcohol can sometimes speed up the breakdown of certain medications, making them less effective. It can also alter the metabolic pathway of drugs, potentially creating toxic chemicals that can cause serious liver problems, as is the case with acetaminophen.
The consequences of mixing alcohol and medications can even be fatal. Combining alcohol with drugs that affect the brain often complicates driving, which can lead to serious accidents.
Who is at the Highest Risk
The combination of medications and alcohol poses the greatest danger to older adults, women, and individuals with smaller body sizes.
In older adults, medications are not metabolized as quickly as in younger individuals. Moreover, older people typically take multiple medications. They are also more sensitive to the effects of drugs that act on the brain and experience more side effects, such as dizziness and falls.
Women and individuals with smaller body sizes generally have higher blood alcohol concentrations when consuming the same amount of alcohol as larger individuals. This is because smaller bodies contain less water, which dilutes alcohol.
Which Medications Should Never Be Mixed with Alcohol
This information is usually available in the medication’s insert. Additionally, doctors and pharmacists should warn patients about the dangers.
This primarily concerns prescription medications. The most common types include benzodiazepines (for anxiety, insomnia, or seizures), opioids for pain, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and certain antibiotics like metronidazole and tinidazole.
Some over-the-counter medications should also not be taken with alcohol. This includes medications for insomnia, motion sickness, colds, flu, allergies, and pain.
“If you want to consume alcohol while taking medications, discuss it with your doctor or pharmacist first,” researchers strongly advise.
