Does alcohol use affect tuberculosis treatment?

In our most recent publication, Wijk et al. explored the effect of alcohol consumption and illicit drug use on the pharmacokinetics of first-line tuberculosis treatment.  

Few studies have been conducted previously on the effect of alcohol use on tuberculosis treatment, and this is the first study that investigated the impact of some of the most commonly used illicit drugs in South Africa on first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs.  

The study did not find any clinically relevant effect of alcohol consumption, but did find that methaqualone, commonly known as Mandrax, does affect the pharmacokinetics of rifampicin, which could result in negative long-term effects if used throughout the treatment duration.  

You can find the publication here.