After stopping methotrexate, how long should I wait before consumingalcohol?
Question posted by folder15 on 8 April 2011
Last updated on 13 May 2013 by Anonymous
Answers
Everyone is different, but I stopped 3 weeks before my Halloween party, and was fine to drink. I had 4-5 drinks over the course of 5 hours. I had Nothing but a mild headache the next day. Before, I learned my lesson with drinking more than two drinks at a sporting event and I was so violently ill, vomiting, with the worst pain in my stomach, I never wanted to do that again. I'm currently on methotrexate and only stopped it for the Halloween party last year. It was a fun night. I do miss drinking, but I'm not tempting it again without taking a 3week break from the Metho. 3 weeks worked for me, it might be longer for others, I would definitely get off it for at least 3 or more weeks
Half-Life: The terminal half-life reported for Methotrexate is approximately three to ten hours for patients receiving treatment for psoriasis, or rheumatoid arthritis or low dose antineoplastic therapy (less than 30 mg/m2). For patients receiving high doses of Methotrexate, the terminal half-life is eight to 15 hours.
It takes 5.5 x elimination half life for a medicine to be cleared from your system... so methotrexate will be out of your system in 82.5 hours (5.5 x 15 hours - using maximum half life), so you should be able to drink alcohol after that.
I would advise caution in taking the previous poster's advice:
While the half-life of methotrexate in serum is in the range of 6 to 8 hours after administration, and is often undetectable in the serum after 24 hours; methotrexate and 7-hydroxymethotrexate are metabolized to polyglutamate derivatives. Methotrexate polyglutamates (MTXGlu) are stored in the tissues, including the liver and erythrocytes, for long periods.
The concentration of MTXGlu in erythrocytes roughly correlates with the therapeutic efficacy of the drug, which is a much longer period of time than is implied by simple elimination from blood serum.
Therefore, one cannot simply use the half life of MTX in serum as a guide to safe alcohol consumption while taking MTX.
Related topics
Further information
- Methotrexate uses and safety info
- Methotrexate prescribing info & package insert (for Health Professionals)
- Side effects of Methotrexate (detailed)
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