Possible Interaction: Ethanol and Zolpidem

“The study was designed to test whether the effects of zolpidem and alcohol are simply additive or reflect potentiation.”

“Moreover, … and alcohol were shown to significantly affect expression of these subunits … brain regions, dosage and duration of treatment with zolpidem as well as age, gender and additional consumption of alcohol, a history of abuse … might play a role in the development of tolerance and dependence in individual patients.”

“When zolpidem is ingested with other medications or ethanol , admission to the ICU was common in our series.”

“On the other hand, in combined intoxications with other CNS active drugs or ethanol a zolpidem dose as low as 0.1-0.15 s induced coma in some patients, even if the amount of the additionally ingested drugs in itself would not have caused a comatose state.”

“Because of the current highly prevalent co-abuse of ethanol and benzodiazepine drugs in humans, the use of zolpidem and other α1GABAA receptor ligands during ethanol withdrawal should be monitored carefully.”

“ Ethanol reduced mPSC amplitude, frequency, and decay kinetics, while attenuating or exaggerating allosteric actions of zolpidem and allopregnanolone, respectively.”

“… ethanol (0.32 and 1 g/… administered alone, showed interactions with zolpidem (10 and 30 mg/kg) leading to reduced rotarod performance and grip strength; in contrast, combination of ethanol (0.…/kg) with almorexant (100 and 300 mg/kg) did not reduce performance or grip strength below ethanol alone.”

“ Ethanol exposure for 4 h decreased biotinylated surface expression of GABAA receptor α1 subunits and reduced zolpidem (100 nM) enhancement of GABA-evoked currents.”

“ Ethanol intake (grams/kg/day) by wild‐type mice decreased significantly after diazepam or zolpidem but increased after L‐655,708 administration.”

“Since zolpidem potentiation exhibited a substantial age-dependent increase in untreated neurons, this finding supported the idea that ethanol arrests synaptic development.”

“The decay phase of mPSCs showed concentration-dependent potentiation by zolpidem (0.03-100 microM), which was substantially blunted after ethanol exposure.”