Alcohol and cephalosporins can cause death if you take your "unruly" drugs

Wang Sihan

 

 

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On August 15, 2012, medical staff were dispensing drugs for patients in a hospital in Neihuang County, Henan Province.

(Liu Xiaokun/people's pictures)

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It is often said, "Don't drink when eating cephalosporins. Drinking alcohol is equivalent to drinking poison, which is easy to cause sudden death". Doctors will tell patients not to drink after taking cephalosporins. Why? What will happen to cephalosporins and alcohol in the body? What drugs can't alcohol be taken at the same time?

Wang Hujun, chief pharmacist of the General Hospital of the Beijing Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, pointed out that the reaction between cephalosporins and alcohol is called disulfiram like reaction. When alcohol is metabolized in the body, it can be converted into acetaldehyde through alcohol dehydrogenase. Normally, acetaldehyde will be converted into acetic acid under the catalysis of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, and later into water and carbon dioxide. However, cephalosporins will affect the activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase, resulting in the inability of acetaldehyde to continue to degrade, resulting in the accumulation of acetaldehyde in the body. Excess acetaldehyde accumulation can cause the patients' face and whole body skin to flush, or nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, chest tightness, palpitations, blurred vision, abdominal pain, diarrhea, shortness of breath, sweating and other symptoms, and even serious symptoms such as blood pressure drop, dyspnea, acute heart failure, myocardial infarction, shock and so on. The drug user can get sick about 5-10 minutes after drinking, and the reaction lasts for 30 minutes to several hours.

What drugs and alcohol can lead to disulfiram like reaction?

1. Cephalosporins, including cefoperazone, cefoperazone sulbactam, ceftriaxone, cefazolin (Pioneer V), cefradine (Pioneer VI), cefmetazole, cefminox, ranoxycef, cefotaxime, ceftriamide (Pioneer IV), cefaclor, etc;

2. Nimidazole drugs, such as metronidazole (metronidazole), tinidazole, ornidazole, secnidazole;

3. Other antibacterial agents, such as furazolidone (Shiterling), chloramphenicol, ketoconazole, griseofulvin, etc.

So, how long is it safe to take alcohol and cephalosporins? Wang Hujun suggested that, generally speaking, it is safer to drink alcohol a week after eating cephalosporins, which will reduce the probability of disulfiram like reaction.

Peng Guoqiu, the director of the outpatient department of Bayi Building of the First Affiliated (304) Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, conducted a scientific check. Expert fields: health preservation, clinical medicine, and psychological medicine.

(Editor in charge: Wang Jiajing, Yao Xinyu)