Drugs and alcohol: a risky combination

People who take drugs and drink alcohol, risk of Overdose, falls, and traffic accidents. In the past few years, it is increasingly common to acute emergency departments due to alcohol-related drug effects come. Especially people over 40 are at risk, as a new study shows.

People over 40 years of study by researchers from the Washington University have found that up to five times more often sedative or depressant drugs than people in their twenties, and also the Rate of binge drinking in the age group over 40 in the last few years grown. Thus, the number of people at risk for adverse alcohol-drug related effects increased, especially for the over 40-Year-old clearly.

Risky especially the combination of prescription drugs, the Central nervous system depressants is. Among the participants of the study who drank at least once per week alcohol, has doubled the intake of prescription sedative or depressant drugs between 1999 and 2014, six per cent. Especially the taking of sleeping pills is increased. Also opioid-containing analgesics were taken by regular drinkers, with around four percent is relatively common.

In order to examine the Interaction of alcohol and prescription drugs, researchers have examined the consumption of medicines, the Central nervous system depressants, in the case of regular drinkers. They analyzed data from over 37,000 adults who have participated in the 1999 and 2014 in a US survey on health and nutrition.

ZOU