Drug interactions benzodiazepines with antidepressants

Although many patients believe that dietary supplements will not interact with medications, recent literature suggests otherwise. Recently, many St. John s wort-drug interactions have been reported in the literature. Cases of patients developing symptoms of serotonin syndrome have been reported with St. John s wort alone and in concomitant therapy with other antidepressants such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors, serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and venlafaxine. St. John s wort may exacerbate the sedative effects of benzodiazepines, alcohol, narcotics, and other sedatives. St. John s wort may decrease the levels of protease inhibitors, cyclosporine, digoxin, and theophylline. 

Drug Interactions Contraceptive effects are decreased when "the pill" is taken with ANTIDIOTICS (ampicillin, isoniazid, neomycin, pen V, rifampin, sulfonamides, tetracycline) or CNS AGENTS (barbiturates, benzodiazepines, phenytoin). Contraceptives increase the effects of corticosteroids and worsen side effects of tricyclic antidepressants. Oral contraceptives decrease the effectiveness of oral anticoagulants, anticonvulsants, and oral hypoglycemic agents. 

Drugs that may interact with disulfiram include alcohol, benzodiazepines, caffeine, chlorzoxazone, cocaine, hydantoins, isoniazid, metronidazole, theophylline, tricyclic antidepressants, and warfarin. 

Drugs that may interact with rifabutin include the following Anticoagulants, azole antifungal agents, benzodiazepines, beta blockers, buspirone, corticosteroids, cyclosporine, delavirdine, doxycycline, hydantoins, indinavir, rifamycins, losartan, macrolide antibiotics, methadone, morphine, nelfinavir, quinine, quinidine, theophylline, aminophylline, tricyclic antidepressants, and zolpidem. 

A growing number of drugs are used that affect the many neurotransmitters in the brain benzodiazepines and others act on GABAergic transmission antidepressants, such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants, are thought to increase the concentration of transmitter amines in the brain and so elevate mood—these will also act at peripheral nerve terminals, so interactions with them are a combination of peripheral and central actions. Levodopa (L-dopa) increases central as well as peripheral dopamine, and the newer class of psychoactive drugs, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) of which the ubiquitous fluoxetine (Prozac) is best known, act in a similar way on serotonergic pathways. 

The potentiation of sedative effects from benzodiazepines when combined with centrally acting drugs with antihistamine properties (for example first-generation antihistamines, tricyclic antidepressants, and neuroleptic drugs) can pose problems (143). Antihistamines that do not have central actions do not interact with benzodiazepines as in the case of mizolastine and lorazepam (144), ebastine and diazepam (145), and terfenadine and diazepam (143). 

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