# Mixing Tranquilizers and Alcohol \[changed title\]
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 30, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184 "2003-03-30T06:38:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Thisissoghey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thisissoghey)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/1 "2003-03-30T06:38:55Z")
What’s this business about mixing tranquilizers and alcohol? Does it really kill people? Is it a painful death? How much of each would need to be had? Moreover, would something like Benedryl work as a “tranquilizer?”
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not planning on doing it or anything. I was just wondering how it works.
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### Author:  [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/2 "2003-03-30T06:40:54Z")
Well, alcohol is a depressant. It will slow down your heartbeat in large enough doses.
Add in a tranquilizer, which also drops your heart-rate and slows down your breathing, and you end up with someone who gradually falls asleep, and then dies because the heart basically stops.
Happsn all the time.
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### Author:  [@phraser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phraser)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/3 "2003-03-30T08:19:57Z")
I think it’s mostly to do with suppressing your breathing.
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### Author:  [@substatique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/substatique)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/4 "2003-03-30T08:34:39Z")
Alcohol works on the same neurotransmitter areas as some sedatives and tranquilizers. The combined effect can be more than the user would expect.
See appropriate headings [here](http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/D/Drugs.html).
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### Author:  [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/5 "2003-03-30T12:09:35Z")
It helps to have descriptive titles. I’ve changed the title for you.
**DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/6 "2003-03-30T12:33:24Z")
not a painful death. everything just slows…
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### Author:  [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/7 "2003-03-30T13:23:17Z")
**China Guy** – and how do you know this, exactly? 😃
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/8 "2003-03-30T13:27:44Z")
Phenobarbitol halts the body’s processing of alcohol. So if you take it before drinking, the alcohol just piles up.
Without phenobarbitol, 6 drinks over 6 hours would never get you much over 1 drink’s worth of alcohol at any one time. Normally, you’ll process about one ounce per hour.
With phenobarbitol, after 6 hours you’ll still have most of the 6 drinks in your system. YMMV
“Let’s be careful out there.” --Hill Street Blues
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/9 "2003-03-30T14:51:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by AskNott \*
> **Phenobarbitol halts the body’s processing of alcohol. So if you take it before drinking, the alcohol just piles up.**
Got a mechanism for that claim? :dubious:
I don’t see one in this review article: [sedatives & alcohol](http://www.pharmcentral.com/sedatives.htm).
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/10 "2003-03-30T15:35:33Z")
Some people remain in a vegetative state for years.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mixing-tranquilizers-and-alcohol-changed-title/165184/11 "2003-03-30T16:04:13Z")
The assertion that barbiturates block alcohol metabolism is incorrect. Barbiturates do not slow the rate of ethanol metabolism in any clinically significant way. Both barbs and alcohol open chloride ion channels, and together they add synergistically to generalized depressant effects.
[http://www.pharmcentral.com/sedatives.htm](http://www.pharmcentral.com/sedatives.htm)
Chronic alcohol consumption can actually speed up barbiturate metabolism, by increasing the rate of of drug breakdown through the activation of the microsomal enzyme oxydizing system. But I wouldn’t try this at home.
QtM, MD