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Drug Interactions With Thioridazine
Drug interactions with thioridazine may increase your risk of developing a life-threatening irregular heart rhythm called QT prolongation. During treatment with thioridazine, you should generally avoid drugs that may increase the level of thioridazine in your blood and medicines that may cause QT prolongation. Among the drugs that can potentially lead to thioridazine interactions are tricyclic antidepressants, sertraline, haloperidol, and certain arrhythmia drugs.
Thioridazine (Mellaril®) can potentially interact with a number of other medicines. The most dangerous thioridazine interactions increase the risk of a life-threatening irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia) called QT prolongation. These interactions involve medications that increase the level of thioridazine in your blood (which increases the risk of QT prolongation) and medications which can cause QT prolongation. QT prolongation is a lengthening of the QT interval, a certain part of the heart rhythm. It can be extremely dangerous.
Medications That Increase Thioridazine Levels
Several medications increase thioridazine levels, increasing the risk of thioridazine side effects (including QT prolongation). These medications include but are not limited to:
- Fluvoxamine (Luvox®, Luvox® CR)
- Fluoxetine (Prozac®, Sarafem®, Selfemra™)
- Paroxetine (Paxil®, Paxil CR®, Pexeva®, Brisdelle™)
- Pindolol
- Propranolol (Inderal®, Inderal LA®, InnoPran XL®)
- Sertraline (Zoloft®)
- Tricyclic antidepressants, including:
- Amoxapine (Asendin®)
- Clomipramine (Anafranil®)
- Desipramine (Norpramin®)
- Doxepin (Sinequan®, Silenor®)
- Imipramine (Tofranil®, Tofranil PM®)
- Maprotiline (Ludiomil®)
- Nortriptyline (Pamelor®)
- Protriptyline (Vivactil®)
- Trimipramine (Surmontil®).
Written by/reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD; Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD