[JNNFE]

Has anyone ever experienced a short term memory loss? My daughter is taking Prozac, Risperidone, and Xanax (as needed - not on a daily basis). She went out and had a single beer and came home, woke up very early the next morning and can't remember the next evening from the time she drove to the restaurant until early this morning. She was not gone very long and I talked to her when she got home - she looked fine and was making food and speaking normally. This morning she can't remember any of it. Could this be caused by a drug interaction? She immediately thought of someone spiking her beer, but she didn't leave it and got it directly from the bartender. She's freaking out about it and thinks she's losing her mind. Is this something anyone has experienced? She is treated for depression, OCD and anxiety.

[sarahsweets]

Benzos, even when taken as needed have been known to affect short term memory. It doesnt always take much for this to happen. I am not sure what the half life of xanax is but sometimes it lingers enough to have an effect when mixed with any amount of alcohol to affect you. I am an alcoholic so I cant do benzos but I personally feel like my years of taking them affected my short term memory. And the alcoholism too of course.

[WishfulThinker66]

My memory doesn't work well and I don't even drink. I think the real issue is that - drinking while on medication. Don't blame the medication for this irresponsible behaviour. What did she expect was going to happen?

[Crypts_Of_The_Mind]

My short term mem is messed up from a coma .. as far as what meds cause it, idk

[healingme4me]

She may want to speak with her therapist or doctor or both. That sounds like amnesia and may not be her meds or even alcohol. It could be tied to her depression. Even trauma of some sort, not that something terrible in the moment but even something triggering and the brain self soothed something? I'm the furthest thing from anyone in the medical community but I have had a period or two where everything was a fog or like a fog.

I don't know about Prozac, but certainly some antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, and benzos could increase the likelihood of fragmentary or en bloc blackouts when combined with alcohol. How fast alcohol is consumed could be a factor. Also, are you 100% sure your daughter only drank one drink? Maybe that's all she remembers. Even if the one drink is true, it's possible it could cause memory issues, based on other factors (several). Could some other issue have also been involved (i.e. dissociative symptoms, hypomania, depression, anxiety, etc.)? I'm assuming she hasn't had ECT lately. In any case, I think this should definitely be mentioned to her doctor.

[amandalouise]

yea sometimes meds and alcohol have this side effect of "black outs" and theres nothing she can do about it other than not drinking while on meds.

a bit of info that may help...

black outs from meds and alcohol are a type of physical amnesia, the alcohol and meds combo makes it impossible for the brain to do the normal forming of memories....

think of this like your computer. you type something in but if the wiring is blocked that something doesnt stay stored it automatically deletes instead.

the combination of alcohol and medications does that, it stops the memories from getting stored and deletes them. when this happens the memory is all gone, there is no way to retrieve or undelete. its gone.

my suggestion is not to drink while taking medications. that way she will not have to worry about having alcohol medication black outs.