cns depressant
10 interactions related to cns depressant
alcohol + venlafaxine
Venlafaxine (Effexor) is an SNRI antidepressant, and alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. The FDA-approved label advises avoiding alcohol because the combination can add to drowsiness and dizziness and can worsen the mood or anxiety disorder being treated. The concern is about additive sedation, blood pressure, and undermined treatment rather than a dramatic pharmacokinetic clash, which is why it is rated moderate.
alcohol + amitriptyline
Amitriptyline is a sedating tricyclic antidepressant with strong antihistaminic and anticholinergic effects. Combining it with alcohol — also a central nervous system depressant — produces additive drowsiness, impaired coordination and reaction time, and a greater risk of falls and accidents. The FDA label warns explicitly that amitriptyline may enhance the response to alcohol.
alcohol + pregabalin
Pregabalin and alcohol are both central nervous system depressants. Taken together their sedative effects add up, increasing drowsiness, dizziness, and impaired coordination, and at the serious end can cause life-threatening respiratory depression — a risk highlighted by FDA and MHRA safety warnings.
alcohol + tramadol
Tramadol combined with alcohol produces additive central nervous system and respiratory depression, and the combination lowers the seizure threshold, increasing the risk of convulsions, serotonin-related reactions, and life-threatening overdose. Tramadol's serotonergic and noradrenergic activity makes this pairing more hazardous than alcohol with a typical opioid.
alcohol + codeine
Codeine and alcohol are both central nervous system depressants. Taken together they add up, slowing breathing and deepening sedation, with the risk of dangerous or fatal respiratory depression. The danger is amplified for people who convert codeine to morphine unusually fast (CYP2D6 ultra-rapid metabolizers), who can experience strong opioid effects from ordinary doses.
thc + alcohol
Drinking alcohol alongside cannabis raises the peak blood level of THC and its active metabolite from the same amount of cannabis, and the two substances produce additive impairment of coordination, judgment, and reaction time. The combination is one of the most frequently detected in drivers involved in fatal crashes.
alcohol + sertraline
Sertraline (Zoloft) and alcohol both act on the central nervous system. Controlled studies in healthy volunteers did not show sertraline worsening alcohol's effects on thinking or coordination, but the FDA label still advises against drinking on sertraline because alcohol can deepen depression and anxiety, worsen drowsiness and sleep, and blunt the medication's benefit in people being treated for a mood disorder.
alcohol + fluoxetine
Fluoxetine (Prozac) is an SSRI antidepressant, and alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. The FDA-approved Prozac label states that alcohol use is not recommended while taking fluoxetine. Fluoxetine and its active metabolite norfluoxetine also have unusually long half-lives, so the drug stays in your system for weeks once you reach steady state — there is no simple "timing window" that avoids the interaction. Notably, a controlled human study found that alcohol did not measurably increase fluoxetine's psychomotor impairment, so the combined sedative effect is more modest than once assumed; the precaution remains sensible but is not an emergency.
alcohol + gabapentin
Gabapentin and alcohol are both central nervous system depressants. Combining them increases drowsiness, dizziness, impaired coordination, and the risk of serious, potentially life-threatening respiratory depression, especially in older adults and people with lung disease, sleep apnea, kidney impairment, or who take opioids or other sedatives.
alcohol + oxycodone
Alcohol and oxycodone are both central nervous system depressants. Taken together they add up, slowing breathing and deepening sedation to a degree that can be life-threatening even when each amount would be tolerated alone. The FDA carries its strongest (boxed) warning on this combination, and national mortality data show alcohol is involved in a meaningful share of opioid overdose deaths.