Mixing Alcohol and Pregabalin (Lyrica)
Dangerous
Together they can stop your breathing, and pregabalin's slow start tempts people to take more before it peaks. Do not combine. Do not redose, and put anyone who passes out on their side.
Gabapentinoids cause respiratory depression in their own right, and the FDA's review found that risk concentrated almost entirely in people also taking another CNS depressant. Alcohol plus pregabalin is a documented cause of fatal respiratory depression, and pregabalin's long onset encourages redosing before the first dose has peaked.
The risk here is to the body — breathing, heart, temperature or organs. Set limits before you start, because this kind of harm does not announce itself in time to react.
Headspace vs physical riskWhat to do
- Say what was taken and how much.Responders need it, and in most US states Good Samaritan laws protect both of you from drug possession charges when you call for an overdose.
- Unresponsive: put them on their side, tilt the head back, and stay until help arrives.Never leave someone alone to “sleep it off”.
- Never Use Alone 1-800-484-3731Stays on the line and sends help if you stop responding.
- Full steps: what to do if it is already happeningOverdose signs, the recovery position, what to say on the call, and whether you can be charged for making it.
- Poison Control 1-800-222-1222Free and 24/7, for “is this bad?” before it becomes an emergency.
Can you mix Alcohol and Pregabalin (Lyrica)?
MixSafe rates mixing Alcohol and Pregabalin as "Dangerous" — high risk of death or life-changing injury. Do not combine. Source: MixSafe research. Educational information, not medical advice.
- Alcohol also called
- alc, booze, beer, wine, liquor, ethanol
- Pregabalin also called
- lyrica, pregablin, gabapentin, gaba, neurontin, gabbies
- FDA Warns of Respiratory Depression With Gabapentinoids. https://www.neurologylive.com/view/fda-warns-about-respiratory-depression-with-gabapentinoids
- Gabapentin and Pregabalin May Increase Risk of Respiratory Depression. University of Utah Health. https://pharmacyservices.utah.edu/alerts/2019/12/gabapentin-and-pregabalin-may-increase-risk-of-respiratory-depression
- Deaths related to the combination of pregabalin and other drugs of abuse. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352007822003316
Think this rating or note is wrong, or know a better source? Send it.
Checking more than two?
Combinations of three or more carry risks that no pair-by-pair chart can show. The checker rates every pair at once and flags the whole-mix ones on top.
Open this in the checkerRelated combinations
Rated dangerous. Educational information only, not medical advice. Absence of a documented interaction is not evidence of safety.