# Lexapro/alcohol combination can lead to serious health problems



## lionheart

you think this is correct?

*What are the effects and dangers of mixing alcohol and Lexapro?*

Curious about what happens when they are mixed, particularly in relation to other SSRI/Alcohol combinations.

2 years ago
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 by little78... Member since: June 10, 2007 Total points: 18952 (Level 6) 

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*Best Answer - Chosen by Asker*

a small amount of alcohol could lead to alcohol poisoning because of the ssri's effect on the liver, the liver does not properly filter out the alcohol and it just keeps circulating in your system so even a small amount could lead to serious problems

ADDED: to mist, i was hospitalized for alcohol poising from ONE DRINK while taking lexapro and this is what the hospital told me.

Also read lot of people get blackouts on the combo.


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## lionheart

I drank 2 beers while on lexapro 10mg to battle mirtazapine withdrawals, i must say it helped a lot! I just dont think this is the way to go.

According to the *Lexapro*® (*escitalopram* oxalate) manufacturer, drinking alcohol while on Lexapro is not recommended. Because medicines and alcohol act upon similar chemicals in the brain, the concern is that Lexapro will increase the effects of alcohol -- whether this is increasing *depression* symptoms or affecting motor skills.

When many healthcare providers are asked whether it is okay to drink alcohol while on Lexapro, they recommend that if a person chooses to drink, he or she should drink only light-to-moderate amounts. He or she should also drink alcohol only after fully understanding the effects that Lexapro (and other medicines he or she is taking) may have on the body.


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## lionheart

*What will happen if I drink alcohol while taking Lexapro?* 
Studies show that LEXAPRO does not increase the cognitive and motor effects brought on by alcohol. However, alcohol may deepen depression. Therefore, the use of alcohol with patients taking LEXAPRO is not recommended. LEXAPRO and alcohol together have caused dizziness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, tremor, somnolence, etc. The LEXAPRO and alcohol connection also caused sinus tachycardia, and convulsions. In more rare cases, LEXAPRO and alcohol caused symptoms of amnesia, confusion, coma, hyperventilation. Of more concern, LEXAPRO and alcohol caused cyanosis, rhabdomyolysis, and ECG changes (including QTc prolongation, nodal rhythm, and ventricular arrhythmia. LEXAPRO and alcohol may have caused one case of torsades de pointes). For a list of side effects of LEXAPRO and alcohol, read LEXAPRO and alcohol warning on the package insert.


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## Medline

lionheart said:


> you think this is correct?
> 
> *What are the effects and dangers of mixing alcohol and Lexapro?*
> 
> Curious about what happens when they are mixed, particularly in relation to other SSRI/Alcohol combinations.
> 
> a small amount of alcohol could lead to alcohol poisoning because of the ssri's effect on the liver, the liver does not properly filter out the alcohol and it just keeps circulating in your system so even a small amount could lead to serious problems


Complete nonsense!



> Also read lot of people get blackouts on the combo.


It's true that one can black out earlier when drinking while on an SSRI, but in general moderate alcohol consumption is no problem. Heavy drinking is always risky...


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## euphoria

Yahoo Answers is populated by retards. You'd have more luck assuming the exact opposite of their answer is true. Drinking is fine on SSRIs, I've done it too many times to remember (literally), and it didn't really make it stronger.


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## Recipe For Disaster

yeah, yahoo answers isn't a good place to go for serious information. ive never taken lexapro but seven years ago when i was on effexor i got drunk several times with no liver issues.


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## bezoomny

It did lower my tolerance slightly, but not enough to become significant unless you're really into binge drinking.


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## lionheart

euphoria said:


> Yahoo Answers is populated by retards. You'd have more luck assuming the exact opposite of their answer is true. Drinking is fine on SSRIs, I've done it too many times to remember, and it didn't really make it stronger.


yes thanks for the replies, how does alcohol interract technically with lexapro?


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## Medline

Benzos would be a bigger issue as they potentiate alcohol's CNS depressing effects...


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## alex999

Don't listen to the retarted juvenile idiots on Yahoo Answers (everyone there is like 13 years old) and just drink in small or moderate amounts.

I've drank moderate amounts of alcohol (2 or 3 beers max) on Lexapro 20mg and had no serious issues and felt fine the next day.

However, I would NOT recommend binge drinking. Every time I binge drank on Lexapro I felt extremely depressed and anxious for like a week. Almost like I had a week long hangover. Last weekend I had 10 beers and the next few days it felt like the meds were no longer working.


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## Noca

I've drank on Lexapro before and never had a problem. My liver is fine even 15,000 pills later.


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## jim_morrison

Will drinking on lexparo harm you? The answer is basically no, it's very unlikely.

The more pressing problem with the combination (when the alcohol is used in excess) seems to be the phenomenon as stated below;



alex999 said:


> Last weekend I had 10 beers and the next few days it felt like the meds were no longer working.


For some reason (the exact mechanism of which, I'm not entirely sure of) there seem to be alot of similar reports of alcohol temporarily de-activating the effects of SSRI's for a few day's after the the person has gotten drunk.


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## UltraShy

My brother has been throughly testing the combo of Lexapro and booze for years now (along with a whole collection of other meds). He's not dead...yet.


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## foxy

*booze*

a couple beers is cool, just dont get hammered.. when down to 5 mg ativan ,i wanted to tapper to 4 an finding it hard, i went to the bar the time i used to take the 5th.I had to stella,s instead. now i go to the bar every day for 2 stella,s an hit my target of 4mg. The 2 stella,s took the place of the 1mg ativan. Now all i have to do is let the wife release me 5 times a day for 2 pints


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## Cuauhtemoc

I get drunk easier when on a ssri. But never passed out or vomited.
It just makes me feel like I'm flying after 1 or 2 tequila shots, while before I need to take about 4-5...
But if I take the 4-5 it feels even better, not bad side effects.


But remember, drinking heavily is always bad, it can cause depression, liver problems, you can pass out. Really, when they say people have gone into a coma by drinking and taking Lexapro it doesn't mean much...you can easily go into a coma by just drinking, correlation does not imply causation.


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## foxy

*sure*

i take 100mg sertraline as a antidepressant .Ativan in england is used like extacy , you can drink an not get hammered an stay cool all night.But you have one hell of a hangover for all of 24 hour,s next day


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## euphoria

foxy said:


> i take 100mg sertraline as a antidepressant .Ativan in england is used like extacy , you can drink an not get hammered an stay cool all night.But you have one hell of a hangover for all of 24 hour,s next day


Drinking on Ativan would get you a LOT more hammered than normal. Benzos aren't like ecstasy...


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## foxy

a million brits must be wrong. I myself have done this many times when young,you get hammered but in a out of body way.You dont fall over you stay buzzing an you can drink all night.I talking 1mg not vast amouts or you would seizure 2mg max. Ocourse you hit a wall at a certain time but when its at max effect , but it dont last long an the night is yours


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## beaches09

drinking is way better when on ssri's.


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## euphoria

foxy said:


> a million brits must be wrong. I myself have done this many times when young,you get hammered but in a out of body way.You dont fall over you stay buzzing an you can drink all night.


Benzos increase the effects of alcohol, it's been scientifically established. Perhaps it will make the effects of alcohol more pleasant, but stronger nonetheless and you'd have to drink less than without a benzo.



> I talking 1mg not vast amouts or you would seizure 2mg max. Ocourse you hit a wall at a certain time but when its at max effect , but it dont last long an the night is yours


You wouldn't seizure, benzos prevent seizures. You'd pass out if you took too much Ativan, while if you took too much Ativan + too much alcohol, you'd overdose and possibly die. Seizures are highly unlikely (if not impossible) in either case.



> drinking is way better when on ssri's.


I agree, but alcohol makes them not work for about 2 days for me. Alcohol is nasty IMO, if I want a depressant buzz I'll just take a benzo or something.


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## foxy

*ouch*

yes your right about seizures,probably the wrong discription. I had plenty of them on withdrawl from high doses of ativan. Which would you think would kill you first, a 10mg withdrawl ativan cold , a bottle of brandy withdrawl cold. an a forced intake of effexor 225mg in a week. thats what i was forced on in hospital.Or 10pints an 5mg ativan.i have a massive tolerance with ativan 10 mg a day didnt touch me in addiction. why am i not dead on that withdrawl regime,not for the want of trying,what hospital could think of putting a human being on a d.tox that could end in death if not stopped. So getting back to the question ativan is not a easy killer,a girl in hospital swallowed 28 mg,they didnt pump her stomach, they just let her sleep for 2 days


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## lynnabelone

*lead answer*

Well, we all think about the society but how much we do to save it, we are just like riding our horses to lead in this world ,forgetting all the things and only thing remember is to lead in any way. That's not worth it.


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## foxy

lynnabelone said:


> well, we all think about the society but how much we do to save it, we are just like riding our horses to lead in this world ,forgetting all the things and only thing remember is to lead in any way. That's not worth it.


 what???????????????????


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## Recipe For Disaster

maybe meant to post in a different thread? still makes little sense.


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## maggilane

*Lead answer*

Hi, i am looking for some tips about the depression , my friend betrayed me when i need them most , but they betrayed , now i didn't forgetting the thing which i did for them , and when i needed them most they didn't help me, it seems like i am very good person, there fore every person try to take advantage of me.


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## g03s

jim_morrison said:


> Will drinking on lexparo harm you? The answer is basically no, it's very unlikely.
> 
> The more pressing problem with the combination (when the alcohol is used in excess) seems to be the phenomenon as stated below;
> 
> For some reason (the exact mechanism of which, I'm not entirely sure of) there seem to be alot of similar reports of alcohol temporarily de-activating the effects of SSRI's for a few day's after the the person has gotten drunk.


I know this is an old post but I had to bump this!

I thought I was going crazy yesterday. I have been on 5mg Cipralex for about 2 months now and it seemed to be working okay. I should have upped my dose to 10mg a long time ago but thats a different story. It definitely decreased my anxiety but I think I need to up my dose to 10mg soon because it isn't working 100% for depression.

Anyways, earlier this week it was my birthday. I also had some anxiety about the age i'm turning and how i'm starting to get old and haven't accomplished much in my life. I ended up drinking a stupid amount. I haven't drank this much in this many days in a row in a long time.

My week went something like this:

Tuesday: Drank heavily from 3pm til 3am or so (Gin and beer)

Wednesday: Woke up feeling pretty ****ty, had 2 pints of beer around 6pm then another 100oz of beer or so 2 hours later

Thursday: I don't remember exactly how I felt but I remember my anxiety starting to come back and I drank about 2 liters of beer in total this day to take the edge off

Friday: Had one beer during the day to take the edge off, then another beer at night to try and get some sleep

Saturday (Yesterday): I woke up, and I felt very nervous and restless. Not extremely restless to the point where I can't sit still, but to the point where I feel like something isn't right. I kept having changes in body temperature. One minute I felt really cold next minute I felt really hot. I also had no appetite whatsoever. I went to a concert last night and had a really ****ty time and had about 4 pints of beer total throughout the night.

I came home last night from the concert and the anxiety came back. I couldn't sleep all night. I couldn't lay down and just relax. It was the worst feeling ever. I would eventually fall asleep for a hour or 2 then just wake up again.

Today I do not plan to drink. My anxiety is starting to decrease because I cut down my drinking as each day went by. Tuesday was the day that really messed me up because I drank way too much Gin and didn't get enough sleep.

I exercised today for about 30 minutes and drank a lot of water. I think it has helped with the anxiety and restlessness but I have some Ativans for tonight just incase of emergency.


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## Xande

^ that's a crap load of drinking


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## foxy

Your detoxing booze you will feel rough, get a grip ,you carnt drink like that an take meds, watch for the blue light,s outside your house ,your going to the mental hospital just like i did.:yes


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## g03s

I don't think you can go through alcohol withdrawal that fast. Theres people who drink for years daily and still don't go through withdrawal when they stop.

I do however believe the anxiety is due to the combination of heavy alcohol and medication. The way I feel now doesn't feel good, but i've been through worse. 

I did not drink yesterday, I exercised twice and made sure to eat good food.

I plan to do the same today. I am also going to see my doctor and get referred to a specialist. For years I have been seeing my GP for depression/anxiety issues and i'm starting to feel that he really isn't the best person to be talking to about this kind of stuff.


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## g03s

Just a reminder... I did write my post to boast about how much I drink or promote any kind of stupid activity. 

I am simply stating what I did which I now realize was STUPID as hell! 

I am just trying to let people know that if you are on Cipralex/Lexapro... Please be careful about the drinking. Prior to this week of heavy drinking, I only drank on weekends and I started to get a bit cocky thinking the medication and alcohol don't affect each other.

It was only until this week that I learned the hard way and got my kick in the butt. Please do not make the same mistake. Alcohol and Cipralex generally do not have an effect when combined but DO NOT DRINK HEAVILY! 

My best advice would be to just stick to light beers and avoid any type of hard alcohols (gin, vodka, whiskey, etc.)


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## Xande

Yeah seeing a specialist/psychiatrist is probably best. But you should really watch it taking that much alcohol, as it will cause you to feel some anxiety/depression. I'm trying to stay away from heavy drinking myself, just made this decision very recently myself.


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## g03s

Thank you for your post Xande. I believe this is a place for all of us to help each other and give the best advice we can. 

I don't think it was cool for someone to tell me that i'm going to the mental hospital. I'm kind of a hypochondriac so if I hear something like that i'm going to believe it. But its a good thing I feel pretty okay today. Not perfect, but I think I can manage.


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## Xande

Oh just saw your post before mine, didn't see it before since I guess the page wasn't refreshed while I was writing my post. 

That's definitely good advice, stick to only beer and stay away from hard alcohol. Bad thing is that sometimes you tend to drink more once you're already tipsy since it obviously impairs your judgment. 

But yeah that's my goal, stick to only beer as any shots will prompt be to get too drunk and start drinking more, which causes me to black out and do stupid ****. Most of the big mistakes I've made in my life have been done due to alcohol.


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## g03s

This week was my first time drinking hard alcohol. I drank gin, and honestly, I kept drinking because no matter what, I felt like I hit a ceiling and couldn't get any more drunk.

In general, I don't think hard liquor is safe for me AT ALL. When you drink a beer, you know how much alcohol is in it depending how big the bottle is. When you drink hard liquor, you end up pouring shots that are too big and it just gets hectic.


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## foxy

g03s said:


> Thank you for your post Xande. I believe this is a place for all of us to help each other and give the best advice we can.
> 
> I don't think it was cool for someone to tell me that i'm going to the mental hospital. I'm kind of a hypochondriac so if I hear something like that i'm going to believe it. But its a good thing I feel pretty okay today. Not perfect, but I think I can manage.


 You may not think it cool, but that is what happened in he end with me, My anxierty was bad i was takeing benzo,s an drinking. Meds an booze are cool to start with ,but like heroin you want more, in the end i was on a bottle of vodka a day an 10mg of ativan. But i started just like you, my wife an kids took me to mental outpatients, they cut my script dead of ativan an banned the booze. I was in mental hospital a week later , suffering massive withdrawl . I had come to the end of the line with bozze an med overdoseing , but i started just like you.:yes


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## g03s

Yeah but the difference here is I learned my lesson. Just because you went through what you did doesn't mean i'm going to go through it. I made my mistake and I learned from it. I will never have a bottle of vodka per day habit along with benzos on the side. I wouldn't even drink a bottle of vodka everyday even if I had the money.

Even when I used to drink everyday a long time ago, I had maybe 3-4 beers per day and I thought THAT was getting bad.

I'm sorry, but we're all different. I understand you had your experience but I learned my lesson, and I don't want to feel any worse now. I am starting to feel better already because I didn't drink yesterday and don't plan to drink today =).

I am also going to see my GP today and hopefully get referred to a psychiatrist or specialist. Please pray that I get referred to one that will help me in this journey of mine everyone.

I'm going to exercise right now again. I really feel it helps take the edge off and makes you feel good because you did something right for your body.


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## foxy

g03s said:


> Yeah but the difference here is I learned my lesson. Just because you went through what you did doesn't mean i'm going to go through it. I made my mistake and I learned from it. I will never have a bottle of vodka per day habit along with benzos on the side. I wouldn't even drink a bottle of vodka everyday even if I had the money.
> 
> Even when I used to drink everyday a long time ago, I had maybe 3-4 beers per day and I thought THAT was getting bad.
> 
> I'm sorry, but we're all different. I understand you had your experience but I learned my lesson, and I don't want to feel any worse now. I am starting to feel better already because I didn't drink yesterday and don't plan to drink today =).
> 
> I am also going to see my GP today and hopefully get referred to a psychiatrist or specialist. Please pray that I get referred to one that will help me in this journey of mine everyone.
> 
> I'm going to exercise right now again. I really feel it helps take the edge off and makes you feel good because you did something right for your body.


 Im not saying you are like me, but thats how it happens.When i came out of hospital i still drank because i had no benzo,s ,but i still had anxierty, they had to give me back 4 mg a day of ativan ,an now i drink mabye 4 pints a week So i nailed it , the shrink will only give you the same meds as your gp, he may send you for cbt theropy , depends where you live. In ENGLAND takes 2 years to see a shrink , first you get to see a shrink nurse to see if your priority. I see a shrink every 6 months an also have an open appointment. But to be honest its just to keep in touch, every thing in mental health you achieve yourself.:yes


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## Chuwey

jim_morrison said:


> Will drinking on lexparo harm you? The answer is basically no, it's very unlikely.
> 
> The more pressing problem with the combination (when the alcohol is used in excess) seems to be the phenomenon as stated below;
> 
> For some reason (the exact mechanism of which, I'm not entirely sure of) there seem to be alot of similar reports of alcohol temporarily de-activating the effects of SSRI's for a few day's after the the person has gotten drunk.


Agree!
Sorry to resurrect an old string, but I'm sure people still have this question. My experience is that 1-2 drinks is fine (actually helps me sleep), but any more than that . . . and basically I feel naked the next day (much like if I were to cold-turkey stop lexapro). Then the following day the lexapro comes back but I'm massively fatigued to the point of being worthless (much like when first initiating lexapro). I don't why this happens, but it does, and it does consistently. On the upside, it does encourage me to be a (very) moderate drinker, if a drinker at all.
BTW: Morrison, much appreciate your posts, I seem to keep running into your name when reading something that resonates/teaches me something.


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## Burnaby

7 years of lexapro and never even once had an issue drinking alcohol (even 7 or 8 shots of whiskey and a few beers), but ofcourse its best to drink in moderation when on most meds.

Wellbutrin however gave me the worst hangover ever and that just on one beer!!!!!


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## GotAnxiety

People can drink for years and not experience withdraws serverely. But people that are constantly starting and stopping binge drinking will experience increased withdrawal symptoms basically your training your body to withdraw or kindling or whatever it called. It better to stay drunk or stop drinking for good. But constantly starting and stopping is just asking for trouble. Make sure you taper to!.


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## GotAnxiety

I would also say the interactions expected between something that blocks the reuptake and alcohol withdraws would be, increased chemicals being released. So hyperactvity,insomina, increased mania or hypomania.
Maybe potential Serotonin syndrome or hypertensive crysis if it a NRI. 

Well drinking there wouldn't be to much sept maybe increased sedation. Tolarance to this effects will probably occur quicker if you keep drinking considering you will be juicing your brain with extra chemicals so you will probably need more to get drunk.


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## jim_morrison

Chuwey said:


> BTW: Morrison, much appreciate your posts, I seem to keep running into your name when reading something that resonates/teaches me something.


That's cool, glad if something I say can be of help.


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