Can anti-psychotic medications cause alcohol addiction?

[mmquilter]

A close relative, a thirty year-old male, has been diagnosed with NOS psychosis in the last year. He hasn't used any alcoholic beverages in at least eight years. Recently, after Zoloft was added to his treatment, he began drinking heavily. It seems there is no solution. Is there any possibility that one of the meds has triggered the problem, or is it just that he's dealing with reality and turning to alcohol? Thank you for any input - this is a difficult situation, and we are trying to decide whether to talk to his psychiatrist about having his medications changed, even though he otherwise tolerates them well and has shown great improvement as far as the psychosis is concerned.

[drifter0213]

i take abilify with my zoloft, maybe he should not mix with alcohol; his meds

[ILADVOCATE]

No medications won't cause alcohol abuse of course but anti-depressents can often worsen mania in a person with bipolar. Speak to his psychiatrist about that as sometimes schizoaffective or bipolar with psychotic features can be confused with psychotic depression. You could ask his psychiatrist as perhaps he needs in addition to an antipsychotic, a mood stabilizer instead of anti-depressent but discuss all this with them. If he is manic and losing judgment he might start self medicating with alcohol but the best thing for him now is a dual recovery group.