Question
Alcohol with Atripla?
19 September 2011. Related: Adherence, All topics, Drug interactions.
I was dignosed 2months ago, and I started with treatment about 6 months ago. I am on Atripla but I just had 2 glasses of alcohol last week and yesterday I had a bottle of cider am just worried if this might affect my progress…please advise as am nervous. I make sure i dont miss my pill every night and i have not expirienced any side effect so far.
Answer
Hi
There is not a drug interaction between alcohol and Atripla. So long as you took your meds on time this will not have affected your response to treatment.
However, there can be an interaction between alcohol and adherence.
Alcohol in moderation is fine, but if you get drunk or hungover, lots of people forget adherence. This would increase the risk of your treatment failing.
Hi Michael
Although I don’t know the time differences between these two places, the principal is one of two options:
i) to continue taking meds on the same US time, whatever this is in Australia
ii) to move to Australian time when you arrive and switch back to US time when you get home. This means that if you Atripla them at 11pm in the US, take it at 11pm in Australia.
The first option is sometimes ok for very short trips of a few days. Otherwise, switching to your destination time zone will also help you adjust to jet lag. This might also be more important for Atripla, that is taken at night so you sleep through the side effects.
The principal for switching between time zones is to not go longer than your dosing time without taking meds – ie 24 hours for once-daily meds and 12 hour for twice-daily meds.
It is better to bring one dose forward that you miss one dose altogether for most meds.
With Atripla, if you viral load has been undetectable for more than 6 months, you have more flexibility. Based on the higher concentrations of the three drugs in this combination pill, extending the dose for one day would be ok. This is based on the results from the FOTO study.
Reference: Cohen C et al. The FOTO study: The 48 week extension to assess durability of the strategy of taking efavirenz, tenofovir and emtricitabine Five days On, Two days Off (FOTO) each week in virologically suppressed patients. 5th IAS Conference, 2009. Abstract MOPEB063.
http://library.iasociety.org/AbstractView.aspx?confID=2009&abstractId=3046
If im traveling to from Dallas Texas to Austrlia how do I adjust the time frame for taking Atripla?