What side effects would you expect if you drink alcohol while taking Depakote Wellbutrin and Seroquel?

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Answer

The major side effect when you combine alcohol with those drugs is when you go stand in front of the mirror you will see "STOP THAT!!" written on your forehead. Sorry, I'm a nurse...I can't help it. (: D)

You don't say *why* you are taking these medications, but from the combination I'm going to take a guess that you're dealing with a Bi-polar issue. If this is the case, then even without the medications, you should NOT be drinking. People who have to struggle with Bi-polar issues have enough to deal with without adding alcohol to the mix. I know it is tempting to escape from the turmoil that way, but it is dangerous and won't help anyway.

As for the medication part of it all:

With Seroquel and Depakote, even the people who make these drugs are not sure of *why* they work the way they do, so there is no way to know what you're doing in the *long term* to your liver, kidneys, brain and other tissues in your body when you combine these drugs with alcohol.

The fact that you are already combining these three drugs is making their individual effects more powerful. By throwing alcohol into the mix, you risk either increasing the effects of one or more of these drugs or canceling out one of them. We'll take them separately.

Depakote:
(BTW, if you are ever given a prescription for Erythromycin, an antibiotic, from a doctor tell them you are on Depakote and *cannot* take this antibiotic...it could cause your Depakote levels to go too high).
Drinking alcohol with this drug will increase the effects of the sedative properties of the drug. You could pass out. It will also depress your drive to *breathe* as well as your heart rate, not to mention other brain functions like concentration, so DO NOT attempt to drive!!!
Seroquel:
*Action Unknown*, but "probably" works against certain receptors for dopamine, seratonin and other chemicals in the brain, meaning you don't want to mess with that by adding alcohol to the mix! And this is another one that you can't take Erythromycin when you're on it.
As for alcohol, the same thing goes...if you drink while taking it it could lead to death. Least case, it magnifies the side effects of drowziness. No driving.
Wellbutrin:
*"Action Unclear"*Same as Seroquel, but not quite as strong. Works against the reuptake of seratonin and dopamine in the brain..more seratonin/dopamine in the blood stream means more of a sense of well-being...hence the name.
Of course, all the same precautions as well.

And I assume you know that you are not supposed to stop *any* of these medications all at once, but you should be "tapered off" slowly by the doctor who prescribed them, because if you stop them all at once you could have siezures. Also, do not combine them with any other medications that may have drowziness as a side effect, such as over-the counter antihistamines like Benadryl or Nyquil, or other cough and cold preparations.

You can go to your local drugstore and talk to a pharmacist who will be more than happy to assist you with questions about your medications. They really like to help people with this and it is their *specialty*! Just pick a time when they aren't "swamped" and believe me, they will love spending the time to help you understand your meds.

First answer by Lakotasue. Last edit by Jwbtgx. Contributor trust: 56 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 5 [recommend question]