Ethanol interactions with serotonin uptake selective and non-selective antidepressants: Fluoxetine and amitriptyline

✍ Scribed by Carolyn A. Shaw; John T. Sullivan; Karen E. Kadlec; Howard L. Kaplan; Claudio A. Naranjo; Edward M. Sellers

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/hup.470040206

✦ Synopsis

Fluoxetine, unlike amitriptyline, selectively blocks serotonin uptake. The interactions of steady state levels of fluoxetine with ethanol and of amitriptyline with ethanol were measured in a double-blind, chronic dose, randomized study. Sixteen healthy men, ages 21 to 28 years, were tested with placebo and ethanol (dosed to maintain blood ethanol concentration of 17-22 mM) and placebo and juice on two separate days. For 14 nights, 8 subjects took fluoxetine 40 mg, 8 took amitriptyline 50 mg, and all were re-tested with ethanol and juice as before. Ethanol had no effect on inhibition of serotonin uptake or on pharmacokinetics of fluoxetine or amitriptyline. The deleterious effects of ethanol on memory, manual tracking, body sway, intoxication and sedation (p < 0.05) were not modified by either fluoxetine or amitriptyline. This study design, which is sensitive enough to detect ethanol effects, suggests that ethanol does not interact importantly with clinically relevant doses of fluoxetine or low doses of amitriptyline administered chronically.