WASHINGTON -- Two of the most widely prescribed stomach medications increase the absorption of alcohol, making it possible for a person to be legally drunk after less than two glasses of wine, researchers said Tuesday.
The researchers said doctors should warn patients of the interaction because it was possible to become impaired after drinking relatively small amounts of alcoholic beverages.
One of the drugs, Zantac or ranitidine, is the most commonly prescribed medicine in the world and the third most common in the United States. The other antacid studied, Tagamet or cimetidine, also is in wide use.
Both drugs block the production of acid in the stomach, making them effective treatments for persons suffering ulcers and other stomach disorders. They also appear to block the action of an enzyme that normally breaks down some of the alcohol consumed in a beverage, thus making more of the alcohol available for ingestion into the bloodstream.
Researchers at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, both in New York, studied what happened to 20 healthy, social drinking men aged 24 to 46 when they were treated with either medication and consumed alcoholic beverages equivalent to one and a half glasses of beer, wine or hard liquor.
'Our study revealed that (Zantac) and (Tagamet) ... lead to substantial increases in blood alcohol levels after consumption of an amount of (alcohol) that corresponds to common social drinking,' the researchers said in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers did not find this effect with a third medication, known as Pepcid or famotidine.
Some of the men in the study had blood-alcohol levels exceeding the legal limit for drunk driving after consuming alcohol while treated with Zantac or Tagamet.
'The blood level achieved does interfere with functioning such as driving or operating machinery,' said Dr. Charles Lieber, leader of the study. 'The medical profession should make people aware of this when they prescribe (these medications.)'
Lieber said he was especially concerned that patients might not realize that the same amount of alcohol that previously would not make them drunk could impair them now if they were taking these medications.
Some of the patients in the study noticed the effects but others were unaware of their possible impairment, Lieber said.
In the study, persons who took Tagamet and the alcoholic beverage had increased blood-alcohol levels by 92 percent. Among persons taking Zantac and the alcoholic beverage, the increase was 34 percent.
The study subjects ate a full meal one hour before consuming the drinks.NEWLN: (
