Remember kids, always check drug interactions before taking anything! Guess who has two thumbs and is in the hospital for taking NyQuil with Zoloft?
Holy shit that’s one interaction I would have never thought of
I wanted to reblog again with more information because even as a medical professional I had no idea about cold medicine doing this. Dextromethorphan, a common cough suppressant in many cold medicines, when combined with SSRIs, MAOIs, or any medication or drug that raises serotonin levels, can raise serotonin levels too high and cause what’s called Serotonin Syndrome. I’m on mobile so I don’t think I can hyperlink, but it’s a serious medical emergency and if you take these medicines you should know the symptoms.
From Wikipedia: Symptoms include high body temperature, agitation, increased reflexes, tremor, sweating, dilated pupils, and diarrhea. Body temperature can increase to greater than 41.1 °C (106.0 °F). Complications may include seizures and extensive muscle breakdown.
Yep. I remembered reading about it like 30 minutes after taking NyQuil and then shrugged and went to bed.
Woke up an hour later with my heart racing, whole body shaking, muscles incredibly tense, dizziness, coughing, and panic.
It got worse on the way to the ER and while there I could barely walk and I was crying all over everything and my blood pressure was dangerously high.
Even with all this, they said I wasn’t having a full SS reaction and they gave me some meds that helped and sent me on my way. If this shit happens to you, go to the emergency room.
Keppra and decongestants like sudafed = BAD TIME, BAD, BAD TIME
Um WHAT. I took NyQuil with Zoloft once holy shit
More on seratonin syndrome from the U.S. National Library of Medicine here.
…….OH
THAT EXPLAINS SO MANY THINGS
Probably a good thing that the first time this happened I went “welp never taking NyQuil again” and moved on with my life, holy SHIT
Omg this is super important for literally everything. Also! A lot of 24 hour pharmacies will tell you if you can take them together. There have been many a times I’ve called at 2am crying asking if I can take this-and-this together and if I can’t what do i do. If one pharmacy isn’t helpful, try another. You don’t even have to be a customer at their pharmacy to have them help you. Hell I don’t even think you need to be in the same state as the pharmacy.
I use: https://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.php before taking anything that may interact together.
When you have a question about drugs, CALL A PHARMACIST! Do not call your doctor and wait to hear back. Every Pharmacy has a Pharmacist, and I have YET to call a pharmacy and be denied a chance to speak with the pharmacist. (I have had to wait though.) A big part of why the pharmacist is there is for THIS VERY REASON.
I guarantee you the pharmacist knows more about your drugs than your GP does. Even your specialist. Because they are your drug specialist. That’s what they do.
Pharmacists literally saved my Aunt’s life AND her sanity. She went from “okay” to “why the fuck does Aunt Alice have like mid-late stage Alzheimers all of a sudden?” in like.. 9 months. So my Mom sits down with her to Sort Her Shit. (The first assumption in my family is to Look At The Drugs ever since my Dad had a drug interaction that stopped his kidneys! yay drug interactions.) So turns out that because she has three different insurances and three different sets of doctors, she’s been using three different pharmacies! So my Mom puts together a full list of her meds and takes it with her to the pharmacist she trusts most (in this case it just happened to be the VA pharmacist.) Dude didn’t even have to check the system. He took one look at the list and was like “Holy FUCK you CANNOT take all these together. No wonder you’re fucking nuts.” Turns out those combinations also cause like serious organ issues on top of that so yeah.
Talk with your pharmacist. And be proactive. You aren’t bothering them. Whenever I start a new med I actively ask the pharmacist to check it against all my current meds (if any) and my regular OTC meds I use (namely, ibuprofen and ta da, NYQUIL.)
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