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Mental Health why cant you drink on paxil

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ldawg616

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Jan 25, 2012
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it says on the label DO NOT DRINK ALCHOHOL WHILE TAKING THIS MED

why is that? If I drank a beer would i die?!?!?!?!?
 
Paroxetine apparently can increase a persons suicidal behavior, mixing this with alcohol which is a depressant could increase the chances of suicidal thoughts. I haven't had experience with this though so I'm not sure if that's really the reason.

On this forum some of the reasons are given as "it decreases your tolerance to alcohol" and "it increases damage to your liver".
 
What happens with drinking and any antidepressants is that the liver can only metabolize one thing at a time. If your liver is preoccupied with digesting paroxetine, the alcohol will build up as you continuously drink waiting to be metabolized.

Here's where the problem lies: when the liver finally decides to process the alcohol you will have probably drank enough of it to knock out an elephant without realizing, and you black out, or get incredibly drunk. Also once the liver starts metabolizing the alcohol instead of the ssri, then your depressive symptoms will come back, coupled with the drunkedness, and malevolent behavior will most likely arise.

Another school of thought is that people are more sensitive to alcohol when drinking on an antidepressant, this could also be explained by the fact that your liver function is slowed down from the ssri, causing increased blood alcohol levels.

Alcohol is a drug that depresses the central nervous system. Like any drug, alcohol can interact with a wide variety of compounds. Many medications can alter the metabolism (breakdown) or effects of alcohol, and vice versa. Some of these interactions can occur even at moderate drinking levels and result in side effects for the drinker.

Two types of alcohol-medication interactions exist: interactions where alcohol interferes with the metabolism of the medication in the liver, and interactions where alcohol enhances the effects of the medication, particularly in the central nervous system (e.g., sedation). Numerous types of medications (prescription and over-the-counter) can interact with alcohol, including antibiotics, antidepressants, antihistamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, histamine H2 receptor antagonists, muscle relaxants, non-narcotic pain medications and anti-inflammatory agents, opioids, and blood thinners.
Click to expand...

If you google ssri and alcohol blackout you'll read many horror stories that make alcohol mixed with benzodiazepines look like a walk in the park. So a beer should be fine, just don't go overboard.
 
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have some miserable experiences with friends on Paxil drinking, when paxil+drunk goes wrong seems like it goes all the way wrong-- you have a blacked out, suicidal, incredibly aggressive monster on your hands, it's like babysitting a hate-filled werewolf for hours on end cause they don't/won't/can't pass out either. For your sake and anyone around you, stay really chill with the drinking if on Paxil, it can be awful
 
It's just that alcohol raises serotonin at first, then depletes it... it interferes with the therapeutic effect of paxil if you have too much of it. More in the long therm, daily use, tough. Ocasional 2 or 3 beers on it is ok.
 
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