Does Grapefruit Interact With Prozac (Fluoxetine)?

Answer

While grapefruit and grapefruit juice are known to interact with many different medications, there is no known interaction with Prozac (fluoxetine). They are considered safe to combine. This isn't the case for all antidepressants though.

How Grapefruit Interacts With Certain Drugs

Grapefruit can interact with medications via several mechanisms, including:

• Inhibition of the metabolizing enzyme CYP3A in the small bowel wall.

• Inhibition of organic anion-transporting polypeptides (OATPs), important drug transporting proteins.

Both the whole fruit and juice can produce clinically significant interactions. In fact, as little as one whole grapefruit or 7 ounces of the juice have been reported to cause drug interactions.

In most cases, when a drug interacts with grapefruit, the concentrations of that drug are increased. One example here is with the cholesterol drug simvastatin. Combining grapefruit and simvastatin can increase simvastatin concentrations, increasing the risk of side effects.

SSRI - Grapefruit Interaction

Prozac (fluoxetine) is classified as an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) medication. Studies have shown that grapefruit interacts with the following SSRI medications:

• Zoloft (sertraline)
• Luvox (fluvoxamine)

The concentrations of these drugs can be increased, which could put you more at risk of side effects.

While grapefruit does appear to interact with several SSRI medications, as mentioned, Prozac is not thought to interact with grapefruit to a clinically significant degree and the combination of the two is considered to be safe.

Final Words

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