Interactions Between Oral Antifungal Medication And Psych Meds
Antifungal medications are used to treat a number of health issues, including thrush, athlete’s foot, vaginal infection, and jock itch. Before taking one of these medicines, it’s important to know about potential interactions with psychiatric medications as some interactions can be life-threatening.
Learn why antifungal medications are used and the types of medications that may be prescribed. We also discuss some of the ways that antifungal oral medication might interact with medications taken for psychiatric reasons, and how to take these medicines safely.
The Most Important Things to Know About Antifungal Oral Medications
Antifungal oral medications can change the way you absorb and metabolize other drugs.
The potential for drug interaction is higher with oral antifungal medications when compared to topical treatments.
Interactions with antifungal oral medications can be serious, sometimes even deadly.
Overview of Antifungal Oral Medications
Antifungal medicines are used to kill fungi or keep them from growing. This aids in the treatment of fungal infections, which can affect not only the skin and nails but also the circulatory and respiratory systems.
Antifungal medications come in several different forms. Some are available as a cream, spray, or powder and are generally used to treat conditions such as athlete’s foot, vaginal infections, and jock itch. Other antifungal drugs are designed to be taken orally, including those used to treat yeast infections in the mouth and throat, such as thrush (oral candidiasis).
The wide availability of antifungals can make it seem like they are perfectly safe to use. Yet, if you look a little deeper, you’ll find that there are many known drug interactions with these types of medicines. The type of interaction can vary depending on the active ingredient contained in the antifungal oral medication.
The Dangers of Mixing Alcohol and Medications
Oral Antifungal Medication Options
Different active ingredients work in different ways. Some help treat infections by stopping the fungus from growing. Others kill the fungus by damaging the fungus wall or destroying the fungus cell.
Some of the most common active ingredients in antifungal medications include:
Clotrimazole
Miconazole
Terbinafine
Tolnaftate
Fungus treatments can also contain other active ingredients, such as ketoconazole and butenafine.
Common Prescription Antifungal Medications
Antifungal medications are prescribed under a variety of brand names. Prescription antifungal options include:
clotrimazole
fluconazole
ketoconazole
terbinafine
miconazole
nystatin
In addition to oral antifungal medications, antifungals can also be administered topically or intravenously. How they are used often depends on the type of infection and its severity.
Antifungals That Interact With Psychiatric Medications
The risk of drug interaction with oral antifungal medications is higher than that of topical applications sold over the counter.The interaction risk can vary depending on the drug’s active ingredient.
For example, the active ingredient terbinafine can have moderate to severe drug interactions with psychiatric medications. Specifically, it can increase plasma levels of several antidepressants, including trazadone4 and tricyclic antidepressants such as nortriptyline,resulting in these drugs exceeding toxic levels in the blood.
Interactions can also occur with all the “azole” antifungals or antifungal medications with active ingredients that end with -azole. This includes itraconazole, ketoconazole, and fluconazole, among several others. For example, in research studies, these medications have been found to interact with atypical antipsychotics such as:
Lurasidone, which is found in Latuda
Quetiapine, which is found in Seroquel
Risperidone, which is found in Risperdal
Ziprasidone, which is found in Geodon
This is just a sampling of the possible interactions of antifungal oral medications with psychiatric drugs. And not all antifungals have a risk of interaction. Nystatin, which is used to treat fungal infections in the stomach, is one drug with no expected interactions.
Medications That Should Not Be Used With Antifungals
The product labels for some psychiatric medications recommend against the use of any azole antifungal agents.
Post time: Feb-23-2024