Biological Sciences
Side Effects of Antibiotics
Side effects of antibiotics refer to the unintended and often adverse reactions that can occur when taking these medications. Common side effects include gastrointestinal issues such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, as well as allergic reactions and the development of antibiotic resistance. It is important for healthcare providers to consider these potential side effects when prescribing antibiotics and for patients to be aware of them when taking these medications.
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3 Key excerpts on "Side Effects of Antibiotics"
eBook - PDFThe Benefit/Risk Ratio
A Handbook for the Rational Use of Potentially Hazardous Drugs
- Hans C. Korting, M. Schafer-Korting(Authors)
- 1998(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Unexpected treatment failure and/or severe adverse effects can occur if these factors are not considered. Toxicity avoidance and enhancement of clinical efficacy are the best approach to optimize the benefit/risk ratio of therapy with antibacterial drugs. 15.2 Avoidance of Antibiotic Toxicity No antimicrobial agent is totally free of unwanted side effects; most of them are trivial, some merely inconvenient, and only a few are life-threatening or fatal. Various factors are responsible for drug toxicity, but two major ways of serious toxicity are usually described for antibiotics: one refers to immuno-allergic side effects, while the other is dose/concentration-related. In the first case the prevention of severe toxicity generally consists in the withdrawal of the responsible antibiotic and/or the choice of an alternative antibacterial, while in the second case, a decrease of the doses under control by therapeutic drug mon-itoring may be a suitable response. 1 We are very grateful to Dr. Eveline Bernard for her kind help in reviewing this manuscript. 0-849H791 · 1/99/SO.OOtS.50 C 1999 by CRC Pn:sa LLC 233 234 The Benefit/RiskRatio: A Handbook for the Rational Use of Potentially Hazardous Drugs 15.2.1 Hypersensitivity, an Example of Dose-Independent Toxicity Among the antibiotics, the ~-lactam compounds have the greatest potential to produce hypersensitivity reactions. Because of the similar structure of the penicillins, hypersensitivity to one agent usually means hypersensitivity to the whole group. Moreover, the structural similarities between cephalosporin antibi-otics and the penicillins are accompanied by a degree of cross reactivity between the two groups. The effects are variable and include different types of rash, urticaria, eosinophilia, edema, fever, conjunctivitis, cutaneous photosensitivity reactions, and immunological abnormalities in the blood.
eBook - ePubNatural Antibiotics and Antivirals
18 Infection-Fighting Herbs and Essential Oils
- Christopher Vasey(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Healing Arts Press(Publisher)
Thousands of antibiotics have been discovered, but only a minority—around eighty—are used for therapeutic purposes. This simple fact speaks volumes about the toxicity of these kinds of remedies. This does not mean, though, that they should never be used.In certain cases antibiotics are absolutely necessary, despite their harmful side effects, and we can only be grateful that they exist. But these cases are rare and much less numerous than those cases for which antibiotics are often prescribed even though they could be treated by simpler, nonharmful methods.The best-known side effect of antibiotics is the destruction of a portion of the saprophytic microbes of the intestinal flora. Generally only some of these microbes will be sensitive to any particular antibiotic. When those microbes (which have nothing to do with the infection) are killed but other microbes that are less sensitive to the antibiotic survive, the microbial populations are thrown out of balance. Microbes that might normally make up only a small proportion of the intestinal flora witness a sharp increase in their population, while others, with whom they are in competition, are decimated.Our normal digestive processes rely on a balanced microbial population. When our intestinal flora are imbalanced or insufficient, we experience abnormal fermentation and putrefaction processes that cause bloating, indigestion, diarrhea, colic, and abdominal pain, conditions that are sometimes difficult to get rid of.This is a well-known fact, and many people who are prescribed antibiotics try to counter it by consuming yogurt, lactofermented foods, or brewer’s yeast to encourage regeneration of their intestinal flora. What is less well known, however, is that the rest of the body’s microbial flora—that of the lungs, skin, genital organs, and urinary tract—is thrown out of balance by antibiotic treatment in the same way. The disorders that result are harder to connect with their cause, but the sharp increase in the incidence of infections with Candida albicans
eBook - PDFPharmaceutical Accumulation in the Environment
Prevention, Control, Health Effects, and Economic Impact
- Walter E. Goldstein(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
In order to introduce the complexity of the interactions of antibiotics on activated sludge bacteria, hormetic effects and problems associated with resistance dissemination are successively introduced. 8.2 Hormetic Effect of Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance Dissemination The effects of antibiotics on bacteria may not be as simple as they seem. Antibiotics are classically defined as molecules that selectively inhibit the growth of microorganisms. With such a definition, natural antibiotics are commonly perceived as weapons that are elaborated by some microorganisms to take advantage of an ecological niche in a fratricide war; but is it really the case? The antagonistic effect of some antibiotic producers against other microorganisms has been documented in a number of cases (Currie et al., 1999). However, the scientific community has only recently fully identified a 0.01 0.1 1 10 Concentration of particular molecular entities (μg/L) Urban wastewater Hospital wastewater Drug manufacture wastewater 100 1000 10000 100000 FIGURE 8.3 Classical range of antibiotic concentrations in raw wastewater. 121 Effect of Antibiotics on Biological Wastewater Treatment Processes potent alternative role for these secondary metabolites: antibiotics as signal-ing molecules (Fajardo and Martínez, 2008; Heeb et al., 2011). This subject has been reviewed on several occasions by Davies and coworkers (Davies et al., 2006; Yim et al., 2006; Davies, 2006), who elaborated on the hormetic effects of antibiotics. In other words, many antibiotics display a biphasic dose-response relationship where stimulatory effects at low concentrations are opposed to inhibitory effects at high concentrations.
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