The Effects of Drinking Alcohol While Taking Lexapro
Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. If you think you may have a medical emergency, immediately call your physician or dial 911. Some research suggests that escitalopram can cause liver damage in rare cases.
Clark 2003 published data only
According to our results, in people with co‐occurring depression and alcohol dependence, antidepressants may be useful for the treatment of depression, alcohol dependence, or both disorders, although the clinical relevance may be modest. Results are also limited by the large number of studies showing high or unclear risk of bias and by the low number of studies comparing one antidepressant to another or antidepressants to other medications. In people with co‐occurring depression and alcohol dependence, the risk of developing adverse effects appears to be minimal, especially for the newer classes of antidepressants https://hostinfo.pw/ns/ns78.domaincontrol.com/ (such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). Regarding alcohol consumption, we found moderate‐quality evidence that antidepressants increased with respect to placebo, the number of participants abstaining during the trial and reduced the number of drinks per drinking day. However, we found no differences between antidepressants and placebo for other relevant outcomes such as the rate of abstinent days (low‐quality evidence). In the present review, the number of participants that reported use of alcohol was not used as a primary outcome as we planned in the Protocol (see Primary outcomes).
Criteria for considering studies for this review
If there were differences in the results among studies at different risks of bias, we performed a sensitivity analysis excluding the studies with a high risk of bias. The effect of including people with uncertain diagnoses was evaluated with the sensitivity analysis; other issues suitable for sensitivity analysis were identified during the review process based on idiosyncrasies of the examined studies. To incorporate assessment in the review process, we first plotted intervention effects estimates for different outcomes stratified for https://www.interstellarindex.com/MentalDisorders/encyclopedia-of-mental-disorders risk. If there were differences in results among studies with different risks of bias, we performed a sensitivity analysis excluding studies with high risk of bias in one or more domains. The quality of the included studies was low or moderate for depression severity, abstinence from alcohol, rate of people withdrawal for medical reasons, and dropouts. In subgroup analyses, in the case of single types of medicines, and comparisons with other medicines, the findings of the review were limited by the small number of available studies.
Global response (depression and alcohol use)
There was no difference for other relevant outcomes such as the difference between baseline and final score, evaluated using interviewer‐rated scales (5 studies, 447 participants, SMD 0.15, 95% CI ‐0.12 to 0.42). Citalopram and escitalopram have been used in the treatment of alcohol dependence especially when co-morbid with major depressive disorder. Treatment outcomes with other SSRIs have not been consistent [3,15,26,50-53]. In our study, both memantine and escitalopram patients reported reduced alcohol craving and consumption, and patient compliance was good. However, the two study groups did not differ in alcohol craving, obsessive thoughts of drinking, compulsive drinking, alcohol consumption, maintaining abstinence, and number of abstinent days per week.
- The poor reporting of study design was mainly for the methods used for generating random sequences and allocation concealment, with more than two‐thirds of trials at unclear risk for selection bias.
- Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
- It is essential to work closely with a healthcare provider to find the right dosage and treatment plan that works best for each individual.
Oslin 2005 published data only
Talk to your doctor, who can evaluate you for other symptoms of an alcohol use disorder and discuss treatments that may help. In this article, I’ll cover what Lexapro is and the risks you should be aware of when taking the medication while drinking alcohol. Antidepressants in particular can https://esenin.ru/bibliografiia/1980-g/zarubezhnye-izdaniia interact with alcohol, so it’s important to talk honestly with your healthcare provider about your drinking if they suggest you begin taking Lexapro. When considering a medication that you will use long-term, it’s important to think about your lifestyle, including if you drink alcohol.
