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Alcohol interacts with many drugs, but which interactions appear to be clinically significant?

  • Drug Reactions and Interactions
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Abstract

Although alcohol (ethanol) is one of the most widely used legal drugs in the world, it appears to be involved with a relatively limited number of clinically significant pharmacokinetic drug interactions. Few drugs seem to interfere with the metabolism of alcohol, and alcohol appears to primarily alter the pharmacokinetics of other drugs by altering absorption. In the currently available formal studies that evaluated pharmacodynamic interactions between alcohol and other agents (primarily CNS and cardiovascular drugs), the most commonly reported clinically relevant symptoms included sedation, tachycardia and general increased intoxication.

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Disclosure

This article was adapted from Clinical Pharmacokinetics 2014; 53:1115–36 [4] by salaried employees of Adis/Springer, and was not supported by any external funding.

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    Adis Medical Writers. Alcohol interacts with many drugs, but which interactions appear to be clinically significant?. Drugs Ther Perspect 31, 284–288 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40267-015-0209-x

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