Can You Drink Alcohol While Taking Zoloft? – Though there might not be an abundance of published evidence describing this specific combination, as with many prescription medications, there may be some contraindications to mixing the two. Zoloft interacts with the brain in a way that can alter certain cognitive processes—potentially impacting decision making, thinking clearly, and reaction times.
- As such, the U.S.
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends not drinking alcohol while you take Zoloft.1 Alcohol can intensify Zoloft’s side effects, including sedation, dizziness, and difficulty concentrating.2 In addition, health care providers recommend individuals with depression avoid alcohol anyway since alcohol is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant and drinking—especially heavily—can make symptoms worse.3 If you believe you or someone you love may be struggling with an addiction to alcohol and are seeking help, call us today at If you are interested in alcohol rehab and are unsure about costs, insurance may be able to cover a portion of your treatment.
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Contents
Can I have one alcoholic drink with Zoloft?
– Avoid alcohol completely while you take Zoloft. Even a single drink can interact with your medication and cause unwanted side effects. The combination of alcohol and Zoloft can cause side effects, and drinking alcohol can make your depression worse. In fact, if you have depression, your doctor will likely tell you not to drink alcohol even if you don’t take Zoloft.
Does drinking make Zoloft not work?
Zoloft and Alcohol Effects – It is not uncommon for people with depression to reach for a glass of wine or two as a way to cope, even when they are taking Zoloft or other antidepressants. While this may make you feel better in the short term, alcohol can cause a worsening of depression and anxiety over time.
Difficulty sleeping Dizziness Excessive sedationFatigueHeadachesSlowed breathingStomach problems
Consult with your doctor or mental health provider if you are currently taking Zoloft and are unable to abstain from alcohol. They will be able to guide you toward the necessary resources to help you quit, as well as inform you of the potential risks of drinking while taking sertraline.
Is 50mg of sertraline high?
Dosage and strength – Sertraline is available as 25mg, 50mg or 100mg tablets. The usual dose of sertraline is 50mg a day in adults. But your doctor may start you on a lower dose, then increase it gradually to a maximum dose of 200mg a day. If you have liver problems, your doctor might give you a lower dose.
What should you not mix with Zoloft?
Precautions – It is very important that your doctor check your or your child’s progress at regular visits. This is to allow for changes in your dose and to help reduce any side effects. Blood tests may be needed to check for unwanted effects. Do not take sertraline with a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor (eg, isocarboxazid, phenelzine, selegiline, tranylcypromine ).
Do not start taking sertraline during the 14 days after you stop a MAO inhibitor and wait 14 days after stopping sertraline before you start taking a MAO inhibitor. If you take them together or do not wait 14 days, you may develop confusion, agitation, restlessness, stomach or intestinal symptoms, a sudden high body temperature, an extremely high blood pressure, or severe convulsions.
Do not use pimozide (Orap®) while you are taking this medicine. Do not use the oral liquid form of sertraline if you are also using disulfiram (Antabuse®). Using these medicines together can cause serious problems. Sertraline may cause a serious condition called serotonin syndrome if taken together with some medicines.
Do not use sertraline with buspirone (Buspar®), fentanyl (Abstral®, Duragesic®), linezolid (Zyvox®), lithium (Eskalith®, Lithobid®), methylene blue injection, tryptophan, St John’s wort, or some pain or migraine medicines (eg, rizatriptan, sumatriptan, tramadol, Frova®, Imitrex®, Maxalt®, Relpax®, Ultram®, Zomig®).
Check with your doctor first before taking any other medicines with sertraline. For some children, teenagers, and young adults, this medicine can increase thoughts of suicide. Tell your doctor right away if you or your child start to feel more depressed and have thoughts about hurting yourselves.
- Report any unusual thoughts or behaviors that trouble you or your child, especially if they are new or get worse quickly.
- Make sure the doctor knows if you or your child have trouble sleeping, get upset easily, have a big increase in energy, or start to act reckless.
- Also tell the doctor if you or your child have sudden or strong feelings, such as feeling nervous, angry, restless, violent, or scared.
Let the doctor know if you, your child, or anyone in your family has bipolar disorder (manic-depressive) or has tried to commit suicide. Sertraline may increase your risk for bleeding problems. Make sure your doctor knows if you or your child are also using other medicines that thin the blood, such as aspirin, NSAID pain or arthritis medicines (eg, diclofenac, ibuprofen, naproxen, Advil®, Aleve®, Celebrex®, Voltaren®), or warfarin (Coumadin®, Jantoven®).
This medicine may cause hyponatremia (low sodium in the blood). This is more common in elderly patients, those who are taking diuretic medicines for high blood pressure, or those who have decreased amounts of fluid in the body due to severe diarrhea or vomiting. Check with your doctor right away if you or your child have headache, trouble concentrating, memory problems, confusion, weakness, or unsteadiness.
Check with your doctor right away if you have chest pain or discomfort, fainting, irregular or slow heart rate, or trouble breathing. These may be symptoms of heart rhythm problems, including QT prolongation and torsades de pointes. Check with your doctor right away if you have decreased interest in sexual intercourse, delayed or inability to have and orgasm in women, inability to have or keep an erection in men, or loss in sexual ability, desire, drive, or performance.
These could be symptoms of sexual dysfunction. This medicine may affect blood sugar levels. If you are diabetic and notice a change in the results of your blood or urine sugar tests, talk with your doctor. The use of alcohol is not recommended in patients who are taking sertraline. This medicine may cause some people to become drowsy, to have trouble thinking, or to have problems with movement.
Make sure you know how you react to this medicine before you drive, use machines, or do anything else that could be dangerous if you are not alert or well-coordinated. The dropper dispenser for the oral liquid contains dry natural rubber (a derivative of latex).
This may cause allergic reactions in people who are sensitive to latex. Tell your doctor if you or your child have a latex allergy before you start using this medicine. Do not stop taking this medicine without checking first with your doctor. Your doctor may want you to gradually reduce the amount you are taking before stopping it completely.
This is to decrease the chance of having side effects such as agitation, anxiety, dizziness, a feeling of constant movement of self or surroundings, headache, increased sweating, nausea, trembling or shaking, trouble with sleeping or walking, or unusual tiredness when you stop the medicine.
How much alcohol is too much on antidepressants?
However, since many patients are not willing to give up alcohol completely, it is important to combine alcohol and antidepressants in the safest way possible. Some physicians allow moderate drinking for their patients. This means 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men.
Can alcohol and Zoloft cause serotonin syndrome?
Is It Safe To Mix Zoloft® And Alcohol? – No. Zoloft® and alcohol, like most antidepressants, should not be mixed. There are a few different reasons for that, but the main two reasons are:
- Drinking while taking an antidepressant can increase your risk of developing serotonin syndrome.
- Alcohol can reduce the effectiveness of the medication, bringing back the symptoms you’re treating.
As a third risk, people with mental health disorders also have an elevated risk of developing an addiction. Therefore, if you’re taking Zoloft®, you should be careful around potentially addictive substances like alcohol, Let’s tackle these risks. Serotonin syndrome is a potentially fatal problem where your body has more serotonin than it needs, and the serotonin becomes toxic.
- It always requires medical attention and can worsen without treatment,
- Serotonin syndrome is always possible while taking an SSRI or other medications that boost the serotonin in your system.
- However, the risk is usually fairly low, and most people never have to worry about it.
- Furthermore, because alcohol also increases the amount of serotonin in your body for a short period, it can push you into serotonin syndrome when combined with other medications that have the same effect.
Since the first symptoms of serotonin syndrome are also similar to the symptoms of drinking alcohol, including nausea, headache, and vomiting, drinking alcohol can also make it harder to notice that something is wrong because you may think that your symptoms are from the alcohol.
The other big risk of combining alcohol and antidepressants like Zoloft® is that alcohol is a depressant, which means that the medications have to work against the alcohol, reducing their overall effectiveness. That can be dangerous, especially for people with severe mental health problems, because your symptoms may come back while the medication still works to increase your energy levels or make it harder to manage your symptoms.
People who mix Zoloft® and alcohol are at higher risk of suicide, attempting suicide, and self-harm compared with people who aren’t on Zoloft® and drink alcohol, people who are on Zoloft® and don’t drink, and people who don’t use either drug.
What antidepressant can I take if I drink?
There are no antidepressants that are completely safe when taken with alcohol. Some providers may say that light to moderate drinking is OK while taking certain antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like sertraline (Zoloft), fluoxetine (Prozac), and escitalopram (Lexapro).
How long does Zoloft last?
How Long Does Sertraline Stay In Your System? – If you’re wondering, “How long does Zoloft stay in your system?” the first thing you have to consider is Zoloft’s half-life. A drug’s half-life refers to the amount of time it takes half of the drug to leave a person’s system.
- The half-life of Zoloft is 24 to 26 hours, which means that it can take roughly a day for half of the drug to be eliminated from their blood.
- In another 24 hours, the amount of sertraline in the person’s body will decrease to 25% or half of the amount that remained.
- In urine, Zoloft can remain for about nine days.
However, sertraline also contains a metabolite called desmethylsertraline, which has a half-life of 66 hours, meaning traces of Zoloft could remain in a person’s body for much longer than a few days. Moreover, how long for Zoloft to leave your system also depends on factors like the dose taken, weight, age, and metabolism.
Can I have an occasional drink while on Lexapro?
– Doctors usually do not recommend drinking alcohol while taking Lexapro or any other antidepressant. This guidance is because alcohol can make depression worse and can counteract the benefits of a person taking antidepressants. People who drink alcohol while taking Lexapro may feel more depressed or anxious, and these symptoms may then become more challenging to treat.
- This worsening scenario is potentially dangerous as it can lead to some people having an increase in suicidal thoughts,
- Drinking alcohol may also worsen some of the side effects of Lexapro or other antidepressants, including drowsiness and dizziness.
- This is because alcohol can also cause these side effects.
Doctors also strongly recommend that people do not stop taking Lexapro or any other antidepressant to drink alcohol. Antidepressants require steady daily doses to work and stopping abruptly can cause withdrawal issues, such as :
flu-like symptomspins and needlesnausea and vomiting headaches irritabilitynightmares
