Can you drink whilst taking antibiotics?

[FuriousGeorge]

Does anyone know please?I've only ever taken them once before & can't remember.The whole family are going out tonight for a meal to celebrate my birthday & I don't know if I can drink my wine without any nasty side effects.The AB's are some sort of Penecillin if that helps?

Thank you.

It is fine unless you are takining some of the cephalosporins, griseofulvin and possibly deoxycycline and erythromycin succinate

The no drinking while on antibiotics is largly an urban myth

I don't think you are supposed to. Not because of side efffects but because it might compromise effectiveness of antibiotics?

I would'nt.

I think its ok to have one, but i always find after having one drink it feels more like you have had 5 drinks

Pencillin is fine to drink with. Some of the others you cant but cant remember names, but pencillin is def fine

i agree with mb

I just quoted from Dollery's Drug Interactions.

There is no interaction between alchol adn abs except the ones I mention. There is absolutly no effect of abs on the absorbtion of alcohol

This isn;t the most up to date copy of Dollery, but this information has been available for ages

Stockly, stockly, I'm cracking up!!!!!

Ivan Stockly the UK guru on drug interactions and an all round nice guy

marne that is such a myth

abs dont make you more drunk - for some abs the alcohol affects the abs and they dont work so well
but not penecillin

mb, what about metronidazole

no I dont think you can on metronidazole

Thankyou everyone.MB,they are Erythromycin 250mg tablets.It doesn't say anything about succincate on the blurb.Would they be ok?I haven't started the course yet,so didn't know whether to leave it til tomorrow?

Thanks-have to rush off & get ready now.

I quote from the 4th edition

'A disulfiram like reaction can develop in patients taking oral metranidazole who drink alcohol, and there is one report of its occurance when applied as a vaginal insert. It can also occur if alcohol is present when M is given intravenously. The exsistance of this interaction is disputed in some reports'

NB this isn't the most up to date copy of Stockly btw

oh, erythromycin I dont think you can. Where I work we have told patients who have said they got a big night to leave the course till the next day. So I would do that. Acutually to be a 100 per cent you could ring local pharmacy

check the pack inset, it should give the full name of the sdrug.

alcohol can cause a moderate reduction in the absorbtion, however in another study of 10 normal subjects there was no effect on either antibiotic absorbtion or alchol intoxication

Personally I would drink on erythromycin just in case, but that is me.

drinking on AB's is perfectly safe, iw as recently given Erythromycin and asked if i could drink on them and was told its fine, there is only one type of AB's that are not safe with drink

Its just the metroniazadol that you should not drink on. I believe its the same stuff that they sew into alcoholics' stomaches to make them sick if they drink (antabuse or something).

Erythromycin is fine,though nausea and vomiting can be a side effect which can be exacerbated by ingestion of alcohol.
The same theoretically applies to all antibiotics though erythromycin and co-amoxiclav are much more likely to cause it.
Metronidazole and it's sister drug(tinidazole)can and do cause and antabuse -like reaction and I always advise no alcohol within 24 hours of ingestion.
If you do have an alcoholic drink remember moderation is the key.