Interactions with Risperdal® intake | Risperdal and alcohol – is it compatible?

Interactions with Risperdal® intake

If a patient takes Risperdal® and alcohol together, various interactions can occur. Among other things, the actual effect of Risperdal® can be reversed and the side effects can be intensified instead. However, if Risperdal® is taken at the same time as alcohol, interactions can also occur with other medicines. For example, when Risperdal® is taken together with certain cardiac drugs or antidepressants, there are interactions which either increase the effect of the drugs or prevent them from having an effect.

Causes of the interactions

There are several reasons why alcohol and Risperdal interact and why Risperdal is not compatible with alcohol. Firstly, alcohol is a fat-soluble (lipophilic) agent, which can pass the so-called blood–brain barrier due to its fat-soluble property.This barrier normally ensures that harmful substances do not enter the brain. However, since alcohol is fat-soluble, it can simply cross this blood–brain barrier (diffuse) and can thus act in the brain.

Normally, alcohol then causes a disinhibition there. The patient talks more and is more extroverted. However, if a patient takes Risperdal and alcohol, this does not tolerate well and the alcohol in the brain causes the patient to feel more anxiety or become more depressed.

This is because Risperdal also works in the brain, and so there are interactions that influence each other, and so both substances have a different effect than they would normally have. Besides this so-called “central” interaction, there is also an organic interaction. Risperdal and alcohol are both broken down in the liver and then eliminated from the body.

If a patient now takes both substances at the same time, the liver may be overwhelmed by this and be less able to break down a substance. This can damage the liver itself, but it is also possible that the effect of alcohol lasts much longer or that a toxic substance, which is produced when alcohol is broken down in the liver, is produced in too large quantities and then causes the patient to feel very bad. All in all, Risperdal is not very compatible with alcohol and should therefore not be taken together.

However, if a patient accidentally ingests a small amount of alcohol, for example in a cake, no or very little interaction is to be expected. However, a doctor should be consulted for larger quantities so that he or she can monitor the interaction between Risperdal and alcohol and intervene in an emergency.