Is mixing alcohol with a prescription drug dangerous?
You may think of a person mixing prescription drugs with alcohol to be a form of drug abuse. They must be trying to get a more intense high by combining prescription medication with alcohol consumption.
For example, someone who takes Xanax and alcohol, or Adderall and alcohol is probably trying to obtain a specific state of intoxication. However, we must not forget about combinations such as Advil and alcohol, Tylenol and alcohol, or Benadryl and alcohol.
Prescription drugs, such as cholesterol medication or blood pressure meds should not be taken with alcohol. Medications that treat brain disorders, such as the seizure drug, gabapentin, are also not recommended to be taken while drinking.
A person could put themselves at risk for serious consequences of mixing drugs and alcohol, while they are just trying to get rid of a headache. Why is it dangerous to mix a prescription medicine or over-the-counter medicine with alcohol?
Why is combining alcohol and prescription drugs dangerous?
Regardless of whether a drug is an illicit drug, prescription, over-the-counter, or even a supplement, there may be dangerous interactions with alcohol. Alcohol is a potent sedative which has toxic effects on the brain, liver, and other organ systems.
Many drugs are metabolized in the liver. What happens when alcohol is straining the liver? Drugs may build up in the system, reaching toxic levels.
The same can happen with alcohol itself. If a drug interferes with the elimination of alcohol from the body, alcohol poisoning may occur.
There is no doubt that mixing prescription drugs with drinking alcohol is a bad idea. Liver damage is a possible risk of combining alcohol consumption with medications or drugs.
There is also risk of brain damage, heart damage, or serious injury. The risk is even higher when combining alcohol with illegal drugs.
Does alcohol addiction increase the risk of mixing drugs with alcohol?
Not everyone with a drinking problem, or alcohol addiction, enjoys mixing drugs with their drinking. Many alcoholics are health conscious, and are aware of the risks of mixing prescription medications or drugs with their drinking alcohol.
They may also be purists, enjoying the effects of their drink of choice, whether it is beer, wine, vodka, or rum. They are not looking for the strange and exotic highs of blending different drugs.
They may also want to avoid the stupor of excessive intoxication, or the much higher risk of drug overdose or alcohol poisoning. On the other hand, there are people who frequently mix prescription or illicit drugs with drinking.
Many alcohol recovery stories include stories about the mixing of drugs with alcohol. An alcoholic may start drinking, and then decide to take other drugs to enhance their high.
Is cocaine and alcohol a dangerous combination?
For example, I have met people who were heavy cocaine users, but they never started using cocaine until they first drank an alcoholic beverage. For them, cocaine and alcohol always went together.
In fact, in some cases, cocaine addiction can be addressed by treating the alcohol problem first. If they do not drink, they do not move on to cocaine.
Cocaine and alcohol combined greatly increase the risk of a heart problem. The risk of heart attack is much higher when these two drugs are mixed together.
It is also possible for a person with a substance abuse issue to prefer an illicit drug, but they enjoy drinking alcohol along with their drug use. An opioid addict may combine prescription opiates with alcohol use to potentiate their opiate high.
Are prescription painkillers, such as opioid painkillers, the worst prescription drugs to mix with alcohol?
A prescription opioid already carries with it a risk of overdose due to respiratory depression. This risk is higher when alcohol is in the mix.
Alcohol is a CNS depressant, so when it is combined with prescription pills that are also sedatives, such as opioids or benzodiazepines, the risk of overdose is much higher.
Oxycodone, Dilaudid, Vicodin, Xanax, Valium, Ativan, and many more pain pills and tranquilizer pills should not be taken with alcohol. The risk of a tragic outcome is greatly increased.
Why would someone take ibuprofen or acetaminophen with alcohol?
While someone with a drug addiction, particularly a prescription drug addiction, might be expected to mix alcohol and drugs, why would someone take an Advil with alcohol? Over-the-counter pain meds like Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, or Alleve do not get people high.
Why bother to take these OTC meds while drinking? The issue is that the withdrawal symptoms after a night of drinking can be very unpleasant for an alcoholic.
They may experience a bad headache, due to the hangover effects from their drinking the night before. Sometimes an Advil may help, but more often, it will not make the headache go away.
Many alcoholics have discovered that drinking more alcohol gets rid of hangover symptoms. Having a drink to cure a hangover is called “hair of the dog.” Read to find out what is worse – anxiety from not drinking or hangxiety in the morning ?
As you can imagine, during the discomfort of a hangover, a person might pop some Advil or Tylenol, and then have a few drinks. They are in pain and not thinking of the risk of drug interaction between OTC meds and alcohol.
Is it bad to drink while getting medication assisted treatment for a substance use issue?
When someone is prescribed methadone or Suboxone for opiate addiction, should they abstain from drinking? What if they were already drinking alcohol with opiates before starting treatment?
Alcohol combined with opioids or opiates is a dangerous combination. Just because a person has survived so far, shooting heroin or fentanyl, and drinking a bottle of vodka, or popping oxys while drinking beers, does not mean that they should continue drinking during medical addiction treatment.
Methadone and alcohol is a particularly dangerous combination. Methadone is a powerful, full opioid agonist.
Suboxone contains buprenorphine, a mixed partial opioid agonist and opioid antagonist. While not as dangerous as methadone, it still has opioid properties.
Alcohol should not be combined with methadone or Suboxone. Additionally, it should not be combined with any other buprenorphine product.
In addition to the dangers of mixing alcohol with medication assisted treatment drugs, it is important to discontinue all drugs of abuse during addiction treatment. A person should consider themselves in recovery from addiction if they take Suboxone, but not if they go out on drinking binges.
Is mixing Valium and alcohol considered to be both alcohol abuse and prescription drug abuse?
What if a person takes 10 mg of Valium and washes it down with a shot of vodka? Then, they go to sleep for the night.
Would they be considered a drug addict and alcoholic, even if they did not continue to drink or pop pills? What if they did this every night, or at least several nights each week?
There are people who take benzodiazepines, such as Valium, every night to help them sleep. While benzodiazepines are generally considered to be short-term meds, some doctors do prescribe them for long-term use.
Doctors cannot follow their patients home to make certain that they take their medication safely. The doctor and pharmacist may warn patients not to drink alcohol with their meds, but they cannot always stop it from happening.
When a person combines a benzodiazepine with alcohol, there is a synergistic effect. It is as if they had many more drinks or took many more pills. The effect of the combined drugs is greater than what would be expected in many cases.
Alcohol should not be combined with Xanax, Valium, Ativan, Restoril, Librium, or any of the other many benzos. Additionally, alcohol should not be consumed when a person is taking any other prescribed psychiatric drugs for mental illness.
The risk of blackouts, fall injuries, overdose, and other serious consequences is greatly increased by mixing sedatives with alcohol. Just because alcohol is legal, and a prescription drug is legally prescribed does not mean that it is in any way safe to mix them together.
Is it illegal to drink alcohol and take prescription drugs together?
Can two substances that are legal be combined in such a way that a law is broken by doing so? This is an interesting question.
Prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs come with very specific instructions for use, and a list of warnings of what not to do. For prescription medications that can interact dangerously with alcohol, there are warnings in the instructions, and usually on the prescription bottle.
Taking a prescription or OTC drug in a manner other than how it is directed may be considered to be illegal. For example, if a person takes a teaspoon of cough syrup for a cough, it is legal. If they drink half the bottle to get high, it is illegal use of a legal medication.
While the police are not likely to break into someone’s home because of reports of them washing their Valium down with a beer, it is possible to face legal repercussions from combining alcohol with prescription drugs. For example, if a person is arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI), the charges may be worse if both drugs and alcohol are detected in their system.
A similar situation could occur, even if driving is not involved. If a person enters a bar with a bottle of prescription pills that are a controlled drug, and then proceeds to pop pills and drink at the bar, they could be arrested for illegal behavior.
Are there prescription medications that can be taken safely with alcohol?
There are medications that may be prescribed to a person to help them reduce their alcohol consumption. Naltrexone is one of the best known of these prescription drugs.
Naltrexone may be prescribed to be taken one hour before having an alcoholic beverage. By taking naltrexone before drinking, a treatment known as The Sinclair Method , the compulsion to drink more alcohol will be reduced.
Additionally, the combination of naltrexone and alcohol has the effect of gradually erasing alcohol addiction from the brain. Studies have demonstrated that naltrexone is more effective at stopping drinking long-term when it is combined with alcohol in early treatment.
Another drug, ondansetron, is being studied for use with genetic testing to help people with a particular genetic makeup to reduce their drinking. Similar to naltrexone, ondansetron will be prescribed while the patient is still drinking alcohol.
What should I do if a family member or loved one is mixing pills and alcohol?
It would be great if we could ask someone to stop abusing drugs, and they would just stop. If they know that their behavior is harming themselves and others around them, shouldn’t they just know better?
Unfortunately, addiction does not work that way. While a person will often come around eventually, and realize that they need help to quit drugs or alcohol, they often start at a stage where they are not ready to quit yet.
In the precontemplation stage, where the person is not at all ready to quit, there may be almost no way to stop them from continuing to consume drugs or alcohol. We can, however, practice harm reduction, and do our best to reduce their risk of harm from their addiction.
It may be helpful to educate people who mix prescription medications and alcohol on the specific dangers of combining drugs and alcohol. Even if a person does not stop all use of alcohol or drugs, maybe we can convince them to stop combining the two together.
While there are programs to get a person to go to rehab, even against their will, it is not always easy to implement these legal plans for forced rehab. Ideally, we should do our best to get a loved one to accept help willingly to overcome their addiction. But Is there a support for parents of addicts ?
A private addiction doctor can help.
One way to start is to schedule an appointment with an addiction treatment doctor. Even if a person is not ready to quit drugs or alcohol just yet, it can help to get started with a doctor in-office, or over telemedicine.
It is possible that they will realize the seriousness of their situation, and start treatment, or at least the seed will be planted in their mind, that they must start thinking about quitting drug use. The doctor can also provide authoritative information to their patient about the serious risks of combining prescription drugs, OTC drugs, or illicit drugs with alcohol.
When a doctor warns their patient of these dangers, it might be taken more seriously. While the patient may not be fully ready to quit drugs or alcohol, they may at least decide to stop combining the two.
By stopping the mixing of drugs and alcohol, their risks of adverse effects will be reduced. And, they will be on the path towards entering full addiction recovery, where they will be prepared to stop using any drugs or alcohol, and they will be prepared to accept counseling and medical treatment for their substance use issues.
