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alcohol

Can you drink on Lexapro? I do mean DRINKING!! Just being honest. When you go out with your friends and you dont come until 4 am kind or drinking.I've done it and have not noticed anything weird. I understand that does not mean its ok.
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Doses of benzodiazepines that are excessively sedating may cause severe drowsiness in the presence of alcohol, increasing the risk of household and automotive accidents. This may be especially true in older people, who demonstrate an increased response to these drugs. Low doses of flurazepam (Dalmane) interact with low doses of alcohol to impair driving ability, even when alcohol is ingested the morning after taking Dalmane. Since alcoholics often suffer from anxiety and insomnia, and since many of them take morning drinks, this interaction may be dangerous.

The benzodiazepine lorazepam (Ativan) is being increasingly used for its antianxiety and sedative effects. The combination of alcohol and lorazepam may result in depressed heart and breathing functions; therefore, lorazepam should not be administered to intoxicated patients.

Alcoholism and depression are frequently associated, leading to a high potential for alcohol-antidepressant interactions. Alcohol increases the sedative effect of tricyclic antidepressants such as amitriptyline (Elavil and others), impairing mental skills required for driving. Acute alcohol consumption increases the availability of some tricyclics, potentially increasing their sedative effects; chronic alcohol consumption appears to increase the availability of some tricyclics and to decrease the availability of others. The significance of these interactions is unclear. These chronic effects persist in recovering alcoholics.

A chemical called tyramine, found in some beers and wine, interacts with some anti-depressants, such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors, to produce a dangerous rise in blood pressure. As little as one standard drink may create a risk that this interaction will occur.


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Avatar universal
More than 100 medications interact with alcohol, leading to increased risk of illness, injury and, in some cases, death. The effects of alcohol are increased by medicines that slow down the central nervous system, such as sleeping pills, antihistamines, antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, and some painkillers.

In addition, medicines for certain disorders, including diabetes and heart disease, can be dangerous if used with alcohol. If you are taking any over-the-counter or prescription medications, ask your doctor or pharmacist whether you can safely drink alcohol.

An unknown number of less serious interactions may go unrecognized or unrecorded.

More than 2,800 prescription drugs are available in the United States, and physicians write 14 billion prescriptions annually; in addition, approximately 2,000 medications are available without prescription

Approximately 70 percent of the adult population consumes alcohol at least occasionally, and 10 percent drink daily.  About 60 percent of men and 30 percent of women have had one or more adverse alcohol-related life events.  Together with the data on medication use, these statistics suggest that some concurrent use of alcohol and medications is inevitable.

To exert its desired effect, a drug generally must travel through the bloodstream to its site of action, where it produces some change in an organ or tissue. The drug's effects then diminish as it is processed (metabolized) by enzymes and eliminated from the body. Alcohol behaves similarly, traveling through the bloodstream, acting upon the brain to cause intoxication, and finally being metabolized and eliminated, principally by the liver. The extent to which an administered dose of a drug reaches its site of action may be termed its availability. Alcohol can influence the effectiveness of a drug by altering its availability. Typical alcohol-drug interactions include the following :

First, an acute dose of alcohol (a single drink or several drinks over several hours) may inhibit a drug's metabolism by competing with the drug for the same set of metabolizing enzymes. This interaction prolongs and enhances the drug's availability, potentially increasing the patient's risk of experiencing harmful side effects from the drug. Second, in contrast, chronic (long-term) alcohol ingestion may activate drug-metabolizing enzymes, thus decreasing the drug's availability and diminishing its effects. After these enzymes have been activated, they remain so even in the absence of alcohol, affecting the metabolism of certain drugs for several weeks after cessation of drinking.

Thus, a recently abstinent chronic drinker may need higher doses of medications than those required by nondrinkers to achieve therapeutic levels of certain drugs. Third, enzymes activated by chronic alcohol consumption transform some drugs into toxic chemicals that can damage the liver or other organs. Fourth, alcohol can magnify the inhibitory effects of sedative and narcotic drugs at their sites of action in the brain. To add to the complexity of these interactions, some drugs affect the metabolism of alcohol, thus altering its potential for intoxication and the adverse effects associated with alcohol consumption.
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447939 tn?1235061943
my advice would be if you wanna drink then take a med thats safe to drink with, i luv a few beers so i only take beta-blockers but im gonna be the bad one that says drinkin makes anxiety much worse
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Avatar universal
There is no such thing as kind of drinking. You either drink or you don't. The label warns about not drinking whilst on the medication for a reason. I'm sure if you keep ' kind of ' drinking, we will all find out why they put warnings on the medication bottles.
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580667 tn?1234580952
You definitely are NOT SUPPOSED to drink while taking Lexapro.  The label on the bottle and the information on Lexapro's official Web site says so.  Also, drinking in itself is not really a great idea when dealing with anxiety and/or depression.  BUT, I have been taking Lexapro for 3 weeks now.  I usually don't drink, but last weekend I visited my brother and went out with him and his friends a couple times and drank (aka got drunk--not horribly drunk, but drunk enough).  We didn't get back until around 3-4AM and I still took my Lexapro at that time because I really didn't want to miss a dose, especially this early on.

So, I haven't personally experienced anything catastrophic after drinking and then taking Lexapro, but I definitely don't intend to make a habit out of it.  I know that's not super legit medical advice, but I just wanted to give me two cents!
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