Trazodone is prescribed to patients to treat depression. Some people use the herb gingko biloba to improve memory loss, as well as treat headaches and difficulty concentrating. The National Institute of Medicine warns that patients should not take the medications together.
Ginkgo
Gingko supplements are derived from leaves of the ginkgo tree and are used to treat a range of conditions, especially those that are helped by improved blood flow. The Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database lists ginkgo as "possibly effective" for a wide range of problems, including dementia, memory loss, slow mental processing of information, vertigo, Raynaud's syndrome, leg pain due to slow blood flow and glaucoma. However, ginkgo may interact with a number of drugs, including trazodone.
Trazodone
Approved by the FDA in 1982, prescription drug trazodone is used to treat depression, as well as insomnia, schizophrenia and anxiety. Its brand name is Desyrel. The drug increases the amount of serotonin in the brain. Trazodone can interact with not just ginkgo, but a number of other drugs, as well as the herbal supplement St. John's wort.
How Trazodone and Ginkgo Interact
Trazodone is both changed and broken down by the liver, and gingko can slow the liver in metabolizing trazodone, according to the National Institute's of Medicine's Medline. Because of this, ginkgo can boost the effect of the trazodone in the body as well as its side effects, which can include headache, nausea and vomiting. In addition, because both ginkgo and trazodone work in the brain, side effects, ranging from sedation to coma, can occur.
A Nearly Fatal Interaction
Many of the warnings about taking ginkgo and trazodone together are based on one Alzheimer's patient, who went into a coma after using both substances. The 80-year-old woman developed the coma several days after starting to take low-dose trazodone, but doctors were able to reverse the coma, according to an article in the "Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry."
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Possible Interactions with: Ginkgo Biloba
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Ginkgo Biloba
- Medline Plus: Gingkgo
- PubMed Health: Trazodone
- "Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry"; Coma in a Patient with Alzheimer's Disease Taking Low Dose Trazodone and Ginkgo Biloba; Samantha Galluzzi; May 2000
