Strange reaction to wine

[Janstar]

Last night I went out with a friend, and we drank 2 glasses of wine each. My friend has just called me to say that she felt fine until she got home, then the room started to spin round and round, and she got very emotional and aggressive and had a big row with her boyfriend, during which she was unreasonable and nasty. She slept till 11 am, and now still feels spaced out, is having palpitations and feels aggressive and tearful.

She doesn't normally drink much, but when she occasionally drinks a few glasses of wine her normal reaction is to get happy and then go to sleep.

She says she feels as if she has been drugged, but we didn't leave our drinks unattended at all. And I am fine, but I was drinking a different wine.

I suggested she go to the doctor, but she doesn't feel able to drive yet.

Could her reaction mean that she has developed some kind of allergy to the wine?

Blimey??!! Hope she is okay. I don't know why this would have happened but I had a similar experience a few years ago - could drink lager for england, then had this 1/2 a lager in the pub accross the road from my house drank about half of it - then was really poorly, threw up all night and also felt spaced out and thought I'd been drugged - but hadn't left my drink at all. Was really bizarre.....

Just out of interest what wine was she drinking - must avoid it

The one she drank might have had too much sulphur dioxide in (preservative widely used in winemaking but in variable amounts and not present in organic wine I think).
But I'd have thought that just made you feel horrible, breathless, usual allergy symptoms - not psychological ones.
Your poor friend sounds as though her drink was drugged and that makes me wonder if the bottle her glasses were poured from was unattended even if your drinks weren't. I'm sure most bar staff are trustworthy etc but that could be a possibility.
I hope she feels better soon.

It does sound to me like "classic" spiked drink symptoms to me

Isn't there a blood or urine test that can be done to check? I have a vague recollection that it has to be done quickly though - within 24hrs.

It was Blossom Hill she was drinking. We really don't think the drinks could have been spiked because the bottles were at the back of the bar out of reach of customers, I was served by a middle-aged woman (hardly a likely candidate), and we weren't two women out alone, my friend's boyfriend was with us too. Anyway, my drink was fine, so it would be very odd.

DSW, did you ever find out what caused it?

No I didn't but it was quite alarming at the time - even my flatmate said the next day that she thought I had taken drugs!! (Am staunchly against drug use btw)

I can't think that anyone would have drugged my drink - but that is the only way I can explain it.

It is truely odd and very worrying really.

janstar - only thing I can add that might help, is that I am a regular white wine drinker, but if I drink a wine which is 'oaked' the New World way - which I believe is with new oak chips added to the wine - I get a similarly violent reaction, including the palpitations, and it happens after only one glass. It became so bad that I now drink no Aussie wine at all unless it specifically says unoaked on the label. I was told that this is not an uncommon allergy, and that as a result the Aussie winemakers are making more unoaked wine. French wine is not as much of a problem as the oak comes from aging the wine in old oak barrels, but I do have to be careful which I drink. Blossom Hill is definately one I avoid, as is Hunter Valley. HTH

Janstar I still wouldn't discount the possibility of the drink being spiked. It just sounds like a very strange reaction especially if she hadn't had much wine in the first place, & it would only take a second to tamper with someone's drink. I only suspect it because drink-spiking is becoming quite a serious problem here (in Oz - mainly around Sydney & Melbourne), and a friend of mine actually died last year from having her drink spiked. I was also reading a university newsletter not so long ago about drink spiking, in which it warned the students to be especially careful about buying their own drinks and not letting them out of their sight.

Very sad but it's becoming a lot more common and it seems that the idiots who do it, don't necessarily need much motive sometimes other than they get a kick out of doing it. Unfortunately most spikings seem to end in sexual assault though.

Message withdrawn

I had a reaction like that once, the day after i started my period, this probably makes no medical sense at all. Hormones and wine send me funny.