Are Doctors Overprescribing Fluoroquinolones?
Doctors Still Overprescribing Fluoroquinolones Despite Risks. Since the 1980s, more than 60,000 patients have reported hundreds of thousands of serious events linked to fluoroquinolones to the FDA, including 6,575 reports of deaths. The most common side effects were tendon rupture, as well as neurological and psychiatric symptoms. But experts estimate only 1% to 10% of such events are reported to the FDA. That suggests that fluoroquinolones might have harmed hundreds of thousands of people in the US alone. Yet despite the many patient reports and FDA warnings on dangerous side effects, many doctors continue to wrongly prescribe fluoroquinolones for simple urinary tract infections, sinus infections, and respiratory issues better treated with less risky antibiotics. SInce 2008, the FDA has required an escalating series of warnings and safety labeling changes for doctors who prescribe these drugs. With the most recent warning, in 2018, regulators required safety labeling changes to include warnings about the risks of aortic aneurysm — a life-threatening enlargement of the main vessel that delivers blood to the body — and mental health side effects and serious blood sugar disturbances. Yet they have stopped short of banning this class of #antibiotics outright. Have you seen any adverse reactions in your practice?
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