How long after taking ceftriaxone can I drink alcohol?

In daily life, cephalexin is not unfamiliar to many people. Cephalexin is a common medicine for treating inflammation of the body. Taking cephalexin can play an anti-inflammatory and infection-preventing role in the body. It has a certain effect on treating pneumonia or rhinitis. However, it is not advisable to drink alcohol after taking cephalexin. Drinking alcohol will easily produce side effects and is very harmful to the body. Do not drink alcohol within one week after taking cephalexin.

How long after taking ceftriaxone can I drink alcohol?

It is recommended to avoid alcohol within one week, especially after using cephalosporin antibiotics. (Cephalexin is a commonly used antibiotic belonging to the β-lactam antibiotic class)

Because cephalosporin antibiotics and ethanol can produce a disulfiram-like reaction, causing convulsions, physical damage or shock, etc. This reaction mainly depends on the metabolic rate of the drug. If symptoms occur, such as facial flushing, chest tightness, difficulty breathing, palpitations, sweating, headache, nausea and vomiting, hallucinations, and low blood pressure, anaphylactic shock may occur in severe cases.

Generally, such reactions occur within a week, which means that you should not take ceftriaxone within one week after drinking alcohol. When receiving an infusion, be sure to tell your doctor that you have been drinking alcohol. Or do not drink alcohol within one week after taking ceftriaxone.

In addition to not drinking alcohol, you should also avoid taking ethanol-containing medicines (such as Huoxiang Zhengqi Water, Yangyin Qingfei Syrup, etc.) and foods (such as seasonings, fermented vinegar, alcohol-filled chocolate, etc.).

Disulfiram-like reaction, also known as disulfiram-like reaction, is a poisoning reaction caused by "acetaldehyde accumulation" in the body after taking drugs (cephalosporins) and drinking beverages containing alcohol (or coming into contact with alcohol).

After alcohol enters the body, it is first oxidized into "acetaldehyde" by the action of "alcohol dehydrogenase" in the liver cells. Acetaldehyde is oxidized into "acetaldehyde and acetaldehydease A" by the action of "acetaldehyde dehydrogenase" in the mitochondria of the liver cells. Acetic acid is further metabolized into carbon dioxide and water and excreted from the body. Because some chemical structures contain "methylthiotetrazolyl side chain", the activity of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in the mitochondria of liver cells is inhibited, so that acetaldehyde cannot be further oxidized and metabolized after it is produced, thereby leading to the accumulation of acetaldehyde in the body and the occurrence of a disulfiram-like reaction.

Clinical manifestations of disulfiram-like reactions

Drinking alcohol (or coming into contact with alcohol) during medication may cause symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, laryngeal edema, cyanosis of the lips, difficulty breathing, increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, weakness in the limbs, facial flushing, sweating, insomnia, headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, drowsiness, hallucinations, trance, and even anaphylactic shock, with blood pressure dropping to 60-70/30-40 mmHg, accompanied by loss of consciousness. It is easy to misdiagnose as acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, etc.

In addition, the severity of disulfiram-like reactions is positively correlated with the dose of the drug and the amount of alcohol consumed. The reaction to drinking liquor is more serious than that to beer, alcoholic beverages, etc., and the reaction to drinking during medication is more serious than that after stopping medication.