Mixing Methadone and SSRIs (antidepressants)
Caution
Some SSRIs raise methadone levels and can add to its effect on heart rhythm. Talk to whoever prescribes either, rather than stopping them.
Several SSRIs inhibit the enzymes that clear methadone, raising levels from an unchanged dose, and some independently prolong the QT interval that methadone is already stretching. Worth a conversation with whoever prescribes either, rather than a reason to stop taking them.
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 riskCan you mix Methadone and SSRIs (antidepressants)?
MixSafe rates mixing Methadone and SSRIs as "Caution" — carries risk that is worth understanding before combining. Reduce doses and do not use alone. Source: MixSafe research. Educational information, not medical advice.
- Methadone
- Long-acting — outlasts its own effects by many hours
- Methadone also called
- dolophine, methadose, done
- SSRIs also called
- ssri, zoloft, sertraline, lexapro, escitalopram, prozac
- QT prolongation with methadone. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2760917/
- Methadone Safety: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American Pain Society and College on Problems of Drug Dependence, in Collaboration With the Heart Rhythm Society. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526590014005227
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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
All combinations →Rated caution. Educational information only, not medical advice. Absence of a documented interaction is not evidence of safety.