Opioids (Cough and Cold)/Alcohol Interactions
This information is generalized and not intended as specific medical advice. Consult your healthcare professional before taking or discontinuing any drug, changing your diet or commencing any course of treatment.
Medical warning:
Very important. A change in your diet, medicine, or dosage may be necessary. Promptly consult your doctor or pharmacist.
How the interaction occurs:
Your medicine and alcohol both depress the central nervous system (CNS).
What might happen:
Concurrent use can result in extreme sleepiness, slowed or difficult breathing, coma, or death.
What you should do about this interaction:
Avoid alcohol while taking this medicine.Contact your healthcare professional (e.g., doctor or pharmacist) for more information.If any slow, troubled, shallow, or labored breathing; severe drowsiness or inability to awaken; unusually slow heartbeat, cold/clammy skin or a seizure occurs, get medical help right away.Your healthcare professionals may be aware of this interaction and may be monitoring you for it. Do not start, stop, or change your medicine or diet before checking with them first.
- 1.FDA (US Food and Drug Administration). FDA Drug Safety Communication: FDA warns about serious risks and death when combining opioid pain or cough medicines with benzodiazepines; requires its strongest warning. Available at: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm518473.htm August 31, 2016.
- 2.Hwang CS, Kang EM, Kornegay CJ, Staffa JA, Jones CM, McAninch JK. Trends in the Concomitant Prescribing of Opioids and Benzodiazepines, 2002-2014. Am J Prev Med 2016 Aug;51(2):151-60.
- 3.Jones CM, McAninch JK. Emergency Department Visits and Overdose Deaths From Combined Use of Opioids and Benzodiazepines. Am J Prev Med 2015 Oct; 49(4):493-501.
- 4.Dasgupta N, Funk MJ, Proescholdbell S, Hirsch A, Ribisl KM, Marshall S. Cohort Study of the Impact of High-Dose Opioid Analgesics on Overdose Mortality. Pain Med 2016 Jan;17(1):85-98.
- 5.Belviq (lorcaserin hydrochloride) US prescribing information. Eisai Inc. May 23, 2017.
- 6.Jones CM, Mack KA, Paulozzi LJ. Pharmaceutical overdose deaths, United States, 2010. JAMA 2013 Feb 20;309(7):657-9.
- 7.Jones CM, Paulozzi LJ, Mack KA. Alcohol involvement in opioid pain reliever and benzodiazepine drug abuse-related emergency department visits and drug-related deaths - United States, 2010. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014 Oct 10;63(40):881-5.
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CONDITIONS OF USE: The information in this database is intended to supplement, not substitute for, the expertise and judgment of healthcare professionals. The information is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions or adverse effects, nor should it be construed to indicate that use of a particular drug is safe, appropriate or effective for you or anyone else. A healthcare professional should be consulted before taking any drug, changing any diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment.