“Is it okay to drink when taking antidepressants?”
I am taking antidepressants to treat my depression problem. I am a social drinker and wanted to understand if it is normal to drink when taking this medications. Just wanted to be sure that there are no counter interactions when both of these are taken together.
8 Answers
Not a good idea. It markedly decreases the effectiveness of treatment.
Alcohol can interfere with the efficacy of medications and in some instances is dangerous.
Since alcohol is sedating, if your antidepressant has sedative side effects, you should avoid driving or operating machinery. Also, limit the amount you drink.
Officially, don’t drink at all. That’s the safest course. A few ozs of alcohol won’t cause any life threatening allergic reaction, but alcohol does impair the meds and worsens depression, so why get treatment and then do something that counteracts it? But no, you won’t drop dead if you have 1 or 2 drinks. Not 1 or 2 cases of beer or bottles of wine.
You are ideally recommended to not drink while being on antidepressants as there can be interactions as well as worsening of depression or even suicidal thoughts due to drinking and being on medications.
Drinking alcohol is not recommended, particularly for people with depression, even if you are not on any antidepressants, alcohol in itself is a depressogenic substance. However, being on an antidepressant and drinking makes it doubly dangerous as your liver may become overwhelmed trying to metabolize both and may not metabolize the antidepressant at all as it preferentially goes after alcohol.
I recommend that you discuss potential risks of drinking when taking antidepressants further with you prescribing provider.
Alcohol causes depression. It is not good to drink alcohol, when you are taking Antidepressant medications.
