If you take an SSRI, do you also drink?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew a 40 y/o really healthy guy, young kids, who died in his sleep. autopsy came back as a drug interaction between ssri and alcohol. Rare, on the back of the box label though so you’re supposed to know the risks. Super tragic.

A close friend, the head of a major ER, told me that they do not interact. And she sees people with all kinds of cross-interactions and ODs all the time. MAOIs and alcohol interact. Benzos and alcohol interact.

Unless your friend took a deliberate OD of the SSRI and alcohol, or had an underlying issue, that was not the primary cause of death. You can OD on either substance, but the interaction alone - when each substance is ingested in normal amounts - won't do it.

And now we get medical advice from a poster whose "close friend" is "the head of a major ER." Even though this person is the "head of a major ER" they apparently told OP that alcohol and SSRIs "do not interact"? Really?

Because this is from the Zoloft label (which is the first and only SSRI label I bothered to check): Do not drink alcohol while you take Zoloft. (Emphasis in the original.)

I would trust an emergency room physician over the Internet.

[Anonymous]

Drinking on SSRIs can increase sedation. It can also cause relapse of depression.

[Anonymous]

The warning is because it can make you feel sleepier/drunker and because it can cause a relapse of whatever you're trying to treat. If you look at manufacturer warnings in other countries, they do not actually warn about a conflict with alcohol. It's more that it's counterproductive, not that it's going to harm you with the interaction alone.
OTOH, you do NOT want to drink on benzos (Ativan etc).