PSA: COUGH MEDICINE + SSRI ANTIDEPRESSANTS CAN KILL YOU.
I am apparently very very lucky that I had a low dose of both. Google tells me that what I had on Saturday was serotonin syndrome and it can apparently kill you.
The culprit is dextromethorphan, which is a cough suppressant and is probably in most cold medicines.
Feel free to reblog this because my psychiatrist didn’t warn me and the label on the cough medicine had nothing about this.
if you’re ever worried about possible drug interactions with otc medications/alcohol you can always use https://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html this site if you cant get ahold of your doctor
BYYYYE with my asthma I practically live on cough medicines!!!! And I NEVER knew.
Literally starting an SSRI today. Pharmacist said that DXM can interfere with the meds; nobody said “…by FUCKING KILLING YOU.” Thank you.
Ok well I’m super glad that I stopped taking cough medicines back in elementary school when they were fucking me up back then.
Be Safe Kids.
-pharmacist clears her throat-
The important thing is which cough medicine you’re using! Because EXPECTORANTS, the stuff that thins the mucus and makes it easier to cough it up, are totally safe. The ones available OTC most places, including the US, contain a substance called guaifenesin which has no known interactions.
The things you want to look out for are cough SUPPRESSANTS, the stuff you’d use for a hacking cough. Those usually contain DXM. Mucinex, Robitussin and the like should be avoided like the plague if you use ANY antidepressant – they’re incompatible not just with SSRIs but also with monoamineoxidase inhibitors and bupropion (Wellbutrin). Plus a couple of heavy-duty antibiotics, medications for Alzheimer’s, antiemetics and stuff. PLUS it’s narcotic-classed a lot of places, PLUS it’s never been shown to be medically effective at all. Avoid.
One thing to look for if you need a cough suppressant is NOSCAPINE. Don’t know what brand names it’s sold under internationall, alas, but in Europe it’s available as Nipaxon. That one interacts with warfarin (common antithrombotic) but is otherwise okay to combine with other medication.
Thank you! I will double-check and then I’ll look for it, though I’m not sure we have it in the US. The pharmacist I spoke to afterwards had somehow never heard of anything like this and told me “any drugs can have bad interactions.” So… no help there.
-winces- I apologize on behalf of my profession. That’s just sloppy. I mean, YES, a lot of drugs can have bad interactions, that’s… sort of why we go to university to learn how to help people NOT get seriously ill from mixing the wrong ones?
Sure, in a lot of cases you have to evaluate “is this potential side-effect common enough and bad enough to warrant potentially scaring the patient into not taking a medication they need?”, but interactions are a different animal. Especially “this combo is a really really bad idea” interactions, which is the case here!
Fuckkkkk my mom always suggest I take mucinex thankful I don’t listen to her lol
Correcting @doomhamster as well here: Mucinex is simply a brand name that *usually* just means guaifenesin, which is, indeed, an expectorant and safe with just about everything. However, they also have formulations that contain dextromethorphan, but those usually say “DM”. Just always check the package for the actual ingredients.
Gay Ryan 