According to ABC-affiliate 49 in Topeka, Kansas,, almost one in five American adults have misused alcohol and prescription medications. In fact, this potentially deadly mixture has become one of the fastest growing medical problems in the United States.
Though most prescription medications will include a warning label if they shouldn't be combined with alcohol, experts say many people ignore these labels. But those labels are there for good reason: alcohol affects the way many medications work. Here's a sample of the impact alcohol can have on different kinds of medications:
- Sleep Medications: Alcohol can depress the central nervous system and intesify the effect of some sleep meds.
- Pain Medications: When mixed, the effects of both pain meds and alcohol are intensified, which slows down the brain and the respiratory system.
- Tranquilizers: The combination of alcohol and tranquilizers slows down alertness and inhibits judgment. This can lead to accidents.
- Blood-pressure medications: This is an especially dangerous mix because blood-pressure drugs lower blood pressure, and adding alcohol lowers blood pressure even more, which can lead to dangerously low levels. Because some hypertension meds are time-released, alcohol can lead to accidental overdose.
Jean Holthaus, Program Director of Senior Prevention, Intervention, Counseling, Education (SPICE), an expert on this type of substance abuse, points out that another part of this issue is that alcohol and prescription drug use is often a hidden problem. So how can you tell if a loved one is suffering from this problem? Holthaus says that some signs are obvious: alcohol on the person's breath, for example. But other things she suggests you can look for include:
- a loved one "shopping" doctors for increased prescriptions
- mood changes such as depression or irritability
- memory loss or confusion
- changes in appearance
- frequent accidents or falls
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