Can You Drink Alcohol While Taking Antibiotics?

Can you drink alcohol while taking antibiotics? In most cases, avoiding alcohol while you’re using this type of medication is the right choice.

What Are Antibiotics?

Antibiotics are a category of prescription medications that can treat or prevent infections caused by bacteria. Some of these medications are natural, while others are synthetic (which means they were created in a lab).

One reason why “Can you drink alcohol while taking antibiotics?” doesn’t have a simple answer is because the word antibiotics doesn’t refer to one single substance.

Types of antibiotics

Antibiotics can be categorized in several ways, including their origin (natural or synthetic), chemical structure, and function (generally speaking, bactericidal antibiotics kill the bacteria they target, while bacteriostatic antibiotics inhibit the bacteria’s ability to grow and reproduce).

From a chemical composition perspective, examples of commonly prescribed antibiotic types include:

Beta-lactams, which includes penicillin, methicillin, and ampicillin
Macrolides such as erythromycin, azithromycin, and clarithromycin
Glycopeptides, a category that includes dalbavancin, vancomycin, and telavancin
Tetracyclines such as doxycycline, minocycline, tigecycline, and
Fluoroquinolones including ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin

Conditions treated by antibiotics

Examples of health concerns that can be successfully treated with antibiotics include:

Staph infections
Cellulitis
Impetigo
Whooping cough
Strep throat
Urinary tract infections (UTIs)
Pink eye
Lyme disease
Endocarditis

It’s important to understand that antibiotics are only useful when a person has a bacterial infection. They will NOT resolve conditions that result from viral infections, such as influenza, the common cold, and most sinus infections.

Now that we’ve highlighted some essential features about these medications, let’s directly address the question, “Can you drink alcohol while taking antibiotics?”

Potential dangers

Most experts advise against drinking while using antibiotics due to potential dangers such as:

Alcohol can magnify the side effects of some antibiotics. In such cases, what should be relatively minor adverse reactions can turn into significant health threats.
Alcohol can diminish the effectiveness of some antibiotics. This could mean that the bacterial infection you’re attempting to treat may remain in your body even after you’ve completed a full course of antibiotics.
Alcohol can prevent your immune system from functioning at full effectiveness. This can undermine your body’s natural ability to respond to bacterial infections.
Drinking alcohol puts a strain on your liver. Processing antibiotics can also cause your liver to work harder than usual. The combined impact can be particularly harmful to this organ, especially if you’re already dealing with some type of liver damage.

These are all legitimate, potentially life-altering risks. But the degree of danger you face can vary depending on several personal factors, including which antibiotic you are using, how much you drink, and if you are also taking other medications.

Conflicting information

In February 2020, the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy published a paper titled “Fact versus Fiction: a Review of the Evidence behind Alcohol and Antibiotic Interactions.”

This review included 87 studies involving 11 types of antibiotics. In the introduction to their paper, the review team reported that:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises against using alcohol while taking linezolid, metronidazole, griseofulvin, and antimycobacterials.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) included nitrofurantoin, metronidazole, griseofulvin, ketoconazole, isoniazid, and cycloserine in a report on potentially harmful interactions between alcohol and antibiotics.
Walgreens, Rite Aid (which has since closed), and CVS do not offer consistent warnings about the dangers of drinking while taking various antibiotics.

The team did not reach definitive conclusions about the safety or danger of drinking while taking antibiotics. However, they reported that “while alcohol use should still be avoided with certain antimicrobials, use with select others appears to be acceptable.”

Best approach

The best way to determine if you can drink alcohol while taking an antibiotic is to discuss this matter with the doctor who prescribes the medication to you.

Your doctor can combine their understanding of the drug in question with their knowledge of your health, drinking habits, and medical history. This will allow them to provide you with appropriate, focused guidance.

What Happens if You Can’t Stop Drinking While Taking Antibiotics?

Being unable or unwilling to quit drinking, even if your doctor advises you that it could be dangerous to use alcohol while taking antibiotics, can be a sign of alcohol use disorder (which is the clinical term for alcoholism).

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), includes 11 criteria for alcoholism:

Having powerful urges or cravings for alcohol
Consuming more alcohol, or drinking for a longer period of time, than intended
Having an ongoing desire to stop drinking, but being unable to do so
Spending a significant amount of time using alcohol and recovering from its effects
Failing to fulfill responsibilities at work, in school, or in the context of your personal life as a result of using alcohol
Drinking in circumstances that are clearly hazardous, such as combining alcohol with certain prescription medications or driving while under the influence of alcohol
Continuing to drink after incurring some type of physical or psychological damage that was either caused or worsened by your alcohol use
Continuing to drink after having personal or social difficulties – such as legal problems or the end of a relationship – because of your alcohol use.
Ending or reducing your participation in important activities because of your drinking
Developing tolerance, which means that you need to drink more than you used to in order to experience alcohol’s effects
Developing withdrawal symptoms when you abruptly attempt to curtail your alcohol use

You only need to meet two of these criteria to be diagnosed with mild alcohol use disorder:

Ignoring medical advice to stop drinking while taking antibiotics fits within the sixth criteria listed above.
If you continue to drink even after alcohol disrupts the effectiveness of the antibiotic you’re taking, that aligns with the seventh criteria.
And if you want to stop, but find that you can’t, that matches the third criteria.

If you suspect that you have developed an addiction to alcohol, you should talk to your doctor or schedule an assessment at a reputable treatment provider in your area. Receiving an accurate diagnosis and discussing treatment options with a qualified professional can be vital steps on the path toward the healthier alcohol-free future that you deserve.

Find Alcohol Addiction Treatment in the Tampa Bay Area

Tampa Bay Recovery Center offers personalized outpatient treatment for adults and who have become addicted to alcohol and other dangerous substances. We also serve patients whose addictions are accompanied by anxiety, depression, and other co-occurring mental health concerns.

Treatment options at our outpatient rehab in Tampa Bay include detoxification (detox), a partial hospitalization program (PHP), and an intensive outpatient program (IOP).

To learn more about how we can help you or a loved one, or to schedule a free consultation, please visit our Admissions page or call us today.