About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Precautions
It is very important that your doctor check your progress at regular visits to make sure the medicine is working properly and to check for any unwanted effects.
You should not use this medicine if you have used an MAO inhibitor (MAOI) such as isocarboxazid, phenelzine, selegiline, tranylcypromine, Eldepryl®, Marplan®, Nardil®, or Parnate® within the past 14 days.
This medicine will add to the effects of alcohol and other central nervous system (CNS) depressants. CNS depressants are medicines that slow down the nervous system and may cause drowsiness. Some examples of CNS depressants are antihistamines or medicines for hay fever or colds; sedatives, tranquilizers, or sleeping medicine; prescription pain medicines including other narcotics; barbiturates; medicines for seizures; muscle relaxants; or anesthetics, including some dental anesthetics. Do not drink alcoholic beverages, and check with your doctor before taking any of these medicines while you are using tapentadol.
This medicine may cause some people to become dizzy, lightheaded, faint, drowsy, or less alert than they are normally. Make sure you know how you react to this medicine before you drive, use machines, or do anything else that could be dangerous if you are dizzy or not alert. Getting up slowly from a lying or sitting position may also help.
Make sure your doctor knows about all the other medicines you are using. This medicine may cause a serious condition called serotonin syndrome. This is more likely to occur when it is taken with certain medicines for depression (e.g., amitriptyline, doxepin, fluoxetine, nortriptyline, paroxetine, Celexa®, Effexor®, Elavil®, Lexapro™, Pamelor®, Paxil®, Sinequan®, or Zoloft®), pain (e.g., tramadol [e.g., Ultram®]), or migraine headaches (sumatriptan [e.g., Imitrex®], zolmitriptan [e.g., Zomig®], or rizatriptan [e.g., Maxalt®]). Check with your doctor first before taking any other medicines.
Do not stop taking this medicine without first checking with your doctor. Your doctor may want you to gradually reduce the amount you are using before stopping it completely. This may help prevent a possible worsening of your condition and reduce the possibility of withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, diarrhea, headache, nausea, shivering, sweating, tremors, or trouble with sleeping.
Find Mayo Clinic on