It seems the web is full of horror stories relating this to “poison” and claiming all sorts of nasty reactions, sometimes years later. Other claims are that this isn’t any worse than any other antibiotic. My own experience is that my neurological symptoms worsened while taking it and haven’t ceased, but they could also be due to my anxiety over what might happen taking it, and the original injury that prompted the script.
Is there any possible mechanism for why reactions could occur months or years after stopping the drug, or is this all people scaring themselves?
Is it possible people are actually getting sick from scaring themselves, rather than a reaction to the drug itself, once they hear about the stories other people have claimed?
I think it really is - at least, of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics for home use.
Cipro is a Fluoroquinolone, and like all FQ’s, when it has side effects and adverse events, they tend to be really nasty, systemic, long term ones. It may not have MORE side effects, but most of the other common antibiotics have side effects like achy bellies and diarrhea, and those side effects go away when you stop taking the antibiotic. Cipro ruptures tendons and detaches retinas and may give you C Diff. That’s not even starting with the (rare, but possible) central nervous system effects and sometimes irreversible neuropathies.
Cipro’s also got more dietary warnings, interactions with foods, meds and supplements, some of them very common, like antacids and NSAIDS. There’s just so much to *think *about when you’re on Cipro, and when you’re on Cipro, you’re probably pretty sick and not thinking all that well.
I’ll use Cipro if I gotta, but I’m going to be very annoying to my doctor first, trying to find *anything *else that isn’t an FQ first. And I’d really rather be in the hospital while I’m on it, so that I’m closely monitored and at least two other people (in addition to me) are checking my other meds and my meal tray for potential problems.
my sister in law was prescribed cipro 20 years ago or so for a minor infection…she went into a 3 month coma and lost parts of her feet, got lupus, etc. etc… The problems it might cause are real enough that no one should be taking it prophylactically – such as if you think you might have been exposed to anthrax. Actual known exposure? Maybe.
Holy cow. I was prescribed cipro for an uncomplicated UTI years ago. They gave me one in the ER. I’d never felt more loopy and disoriented in my life. No one warned me of any extreme side effects.
I was given an Rx for cipro once and had no side effects. Lucky me I guess. How common are these side effects? I’m sure they happen, but if they were extremely common I would assume the drug would be pulled.
ETA: No, none of them are “extremely common.” Most are “uncommon”, or happen to 0.1-1.0% of courses of treatment. Most of the ones that are “common” (1-10%) are the mild ones shared with other antibiotics - GI upset, yeast infections in women, high eosinophil count, wonky liver labs, elevated creatinine. The only “common” ones that I don’t see with most other antibiotics are the headache, dizziness and “central nervous system disturbance”.
I’ve taken Cipro several times for traveler’s, oh, let’s say “effects.” I’ve never had a problem. Not+
saying that others don’t; just representing the other side of the spectrum.
Cipro (ciprofloxacin) is one of a class called Fluoroquinolones. Most of the drugs in this class have “-flocaxin” as part of their generic names. There are scads of horror stories out there about the neurotoxic effects of these – including an entire book written by an investigative journalist whose wife got “floxed” after taking the first dose. ( Bitter Pills by Stephen Fried; read the first chapter on-line. ) These drugs can sometime do serious and irreversible brain damage.
But geez! This thread, and in particular that article linked by Wesley Clark above, is the first I’ve ever heard or read about so many kinds of antibiotics having neurotoxic effects! I’ve used several of the kinds of drugs mentioned (cephalosporins, penicillin-like drugs, whatever) without serious problems that I know of. But there are so many ghastly horror stories about fluoroquinolones that I wouldn’t touch those!
To partially answer the OP’s question: They have long-lasting effects because, it seems, they can do permanent damage to the nervous system, both central and peripheral. But I still haven’t seen any answer to the other part of OP’s question: Why these effects sometimes only appear long afterward.
ETA: Even people who know nothing about these drugs and their horror stories sometimes have these adverse reactions, so it isn’t just a placebo effect.
Without knowing anything about it, I took Cipro for traveler’s diarrhea.
I became very disoriented and developed, of all things, an extremely acute sense of smell. I could smell the precise mix of apples and oranges in a produce stand nearly a block away. I could smell the dirty clothes in people’s apartments as I passed by.
It was terrifying, and I am thankful every day it wasn’t permanent. I can’t help but think, though, that we must have the capability to smell like that normally, and filter it out.
I took cipro once too and toward the end of the course it just made me feel horrible, and altered my sense of taste and like you said smell. Everything tasted HIDEOUS, the only thing I could keep down was milk.
I only saw all the stuff about side effects afterward researching.
I took it once for some bad stomach problems when I showed up at the emergency room. I don’t remember any bad effects. Then again, I was so miserable from my ailment that I was so relieved to just be able to sleep.
I take Cipro pretty regularly because I have chronic lung and sinus infections. It usually works pretty well. I tend to alternate between that and bactrim. I’ve never taken cipro for stomach problems. I find cipro is way easier on my stomach than penicillin or erythromycins. I never noticed any side effects from it. Go figure.
Wow. I took Cipro a few times because I’m allergic to regular PCN, can’t tolerate sulfa drugs, and a Z-pack doesn’t work on me to kill the bacterial component of the annual bad-sinus-infection-plus-general-lung-infection-with-asthma-flare-up.
No bad side effects (though I was paranoid about every twinge in my ankle for the entire course of treatment).
Except that everything tasted bitter and metallic for the entire course of treatment. No matter what I tried, just this horrible aftertaste. Ugh.
I’d heard of the really nasty reactions in relation to Floxin (same class), but not Cipro. Yikes. I only had Cipro once that I recall, after a nasty case of double-over-with-cramps diarrhea that lasted a week, and aside from a nasty yeast infection (expected), I had no issues.
Interestingly, I’d gone to urgent care with that same case of diarrhea, and they said “take a lot of Pepto-Bismol” and also gave me a scrip for Floxin. I didn’t fill the Floxin - wound up going to see a real gastro a few days later. I’m glad I didn’t!! The gastro was the one who gave me the Cipro.
I did two courses of Avelox several years ago (also in the same class as Cipro) for sinus infections. It made me feel very strange— lightheaded and disconnected— which I didn’t like, but I finished both courses and didn’t have any lasting side effects. More recently I was prescribed Cipro for an intestinal infection, but after some amateur research into the horror stories I decided it wasn’t worth the risk. It really seems like more of a last-line-of-defense drug, IMO, despite my doctor having casually prescribed it as the first course of treatment.
I do know that specialists know generally what classes of antibiotics work on the current bugs in an area, trial and error I guess. One year I asked my doc if a Z-pack would work on my sinus infection, and she said that it had not worked on her other patients with the same problem, so she suspected it wasn’t very effective for the underlying bug. I’ve had my ENT and allergist say similar things.
I’m trying to avoid antibiotics altogether for sinus infection, but jeez it’s hard when your lungs get into the fun.