Posted by B Day on October 24, 2000, at 18:48:10
In reply to Question about Celexa, posted by Mary LameBull on October 24, 2000, at 16:10:53
Mary,
I too am new to Celexa. My docs have indicated to me that there is little danger of harmful interaction between alcohol and Celexa. They did tell me though that alcohol "negates" the effectiveness of SSRI's such as Celexa.
I've read that Celexa is ethanol soluable, but I don't know if or how much that might factor into alcohol negating it. Nor do I know if alcohol limits Celexa's ability to inhibit serotonin reuptake. All I know is that alcohol is a depressant. Perhaps it is possible that alcohol negates Celexa's effectiveness is more than one way.
I have noted that some of the folks who have posted on this board have had some pretty severe interactions between their meds and alcohol. Although I don't recall Celexa being mentioned, it may have been.
Another thing worth considering is just how differently one person versus another may react to a medication. I see a good deal of that on this board. So it seems each treatment is a personal thing. What works or harms one person may not another.
The impression I got from my docs was that an ocassional drink would neither harm me or prevent Celexa from doing its job. Regular drinking would probably not hurt me either, but it would certainly destroy Celexa's effectiveness. I have no idea what getting drunk would do.
They also mentioned that being new to Celexa, it is important that I don't use alcohol so that we can see just how effective or not Celexa will be for me in coming weeks.
This all makes sense to me and I'm abiding by their wishes, although I wouldn't mind a couple of belts right now.
There are some people on this board who are very knowledgeable in areas such as this (much more than I). I suspect you will hear from some of them. You might also do a board search on the topic as well. I'm sure folks have discussed this issue quite a bit.
Good luck finding answers.
B
poster:B Day
thread:2790
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001022/msgs/47274.html