“This is the first large epidemiologic study. It confirms a previous data mining study and the conclusions of the FDA based on adverse event reporting,” says the study’s lead author, Dr. Mahyar Etminan, PharmD, from the University of British Columbia, Canada.Symptoms of PN include sensations of tingling, buzzing, electrical zaps, or burning in the arms and legs or the head area. It can also include pain in the mouth, lips, teeth, facial pain, muscle twitching or hyper-sensitivity to touch, as well as many other uncomfortable and painful sensations.
According to the study, to be published in the September 15, 2014 edition of the American Academy of Neurology (Neurology 2014; 83:1-3), the risk of PN is significantly elevated with the use of oral fluoroquinolones.
Researchers looked at a large cohort of men in the US and controlled for confounding factors such as diabetes in order to determine whether the use of this particular class of antibiotic does link to nerve damage in otherwise healthy males.
“What we can say is that it doubles the risk. Generally speaking, this is still a rare event, but in terms of the relative risk, it doubles the risk between users and non-users,” says Dr. Etminan.
The difference in risk among three mostly commonly used fluoroquinolones, Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin), and Avelox (moxifloxacin), was not significant.
Fluoroquinolones are a synthetic class of antibacterial drugs - they were first discovered in the early 1960s and first used for the treatment of urinary tract infections. They essentially work to prevent bacterial DNA from reproducing.
“Different antibiotics work in different ways,” says Dr. Etminan. “This specific type goes into the cell and changes the DNA of the bacteria. We think that although it is designed to work on bacteria, we think it is possible that human DNA is also changed. That may be how we are getting reports of all these side effects, from tendon rupture to kidney failure and liver damage to peripheral nerve damage.”
In September 2013, faced with an increasing number of case reports and reports sent to the FDA through its Adverse Event Reporting System, the FDA issued a communiqué requiring a label change for all oral fluoroquinolones that addressed the risk of PN.
In 2008, the FDA ordered some FQs to carry a “black box label” warning of an increased risk of tendonitis.
The condition does not necessarily go away after the use of the antibiotics is discontinued. In other words, the condition may be permanent. PN can be extremely serious and even debilitating.
READ MORE FLUOROQINOLONE ANTIBIOTICS LEGAL NEWS
Authors of this latest study wrote in their conclusions that “Current users, especially new users of FQs, are at a higher risk of developing PN (peripheral neuropathy). Despite the increase in the use of FQs, clinicians should weigh the benefits against the risk of adverse events when prescribing these drugs to their patients.”
The FQs are a particularly potent class of antibiotics and able to counter a wide variety of bacterial infections. Dr. Etminan points out that it may be more appropriate to use other types of antibiotics in some cases and eliminate the possibility of an adverse PN-type event from occurring.
The authors of this work received no corporate or special interest funding for this study.
READER COMMENTS
Nancy Weissman
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CHRISANNE OLIVER
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jose r fronda jr
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carmen blount
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DanS.
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Teri CiproVictim
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Teri CiproVictim
Christian
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Anyway, some time later I started to notice numbness in my feet. Not too much, but it was not my imagination. I couldn't find anything very alarming on the Internet with just this symptom, so I didn't do anything right away. But after a number of months went by with no improvement and perhaps a little more numbness, I went to see a doctor. She checked me out and ran blood tests and while she confirmed that I did have some loss of feeling, the tests all came back pretty much normal. She said if I wanted they could do a "nerve test" but didn't seem to care if I did or not. I already knew I had numbness, so I didn't see the point.
Then just today I read about this issue and damn if it doesn't sound like what happened to me!!! I have contacted a law firm to see what they can tell me, but my symptoms are pretty mild at this point. My heart goes out to any of you that are really suffering. Contact me if want to talk about what you are going through. I don't understand how the drug companies can keep pushing stuff to the doctors who make us think they are taking care of us when the cure is often as bad or worse that the disease!
David Ramey
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Valerie Carpenter
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Since then, I have had ringing in my ears that comes and goes on a regular (tinnitus), incontinence and bladder urgency, pain in my left arm joint, broken and puffy veins in my legs, double vision with floaters, vertigo and stomach gas. I may not be as bad off as some of the people who have commented because I take regular daily vitamins, immune boosters and herbs.
Mike
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teldia haywood
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Rose Terry
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Kim Lemmon
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The buzzing, that turned into burning, kept me awake at night for weeks. You can't get help from doctors because they don't agree that your antibiotic caused this. I was left to try supplements recommended by others in this situation, some of which did harm. It has been 21 months since this expolsion occurred and I still have tendon and nerve pain every day. I can't exercise, do any lifting, fear going on vacation where I might have to walk.
These drugs need to be restricted to life-threatening illnesses AND with the patient's consent. They are like taking chemotherapy and you wouldn't give those drugs without patient consent.
Thanks again, Kim
Vickie Klausing
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Jane Crosby
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There is mounting evidence to show that indeed they do prevent the DNA from reproducing in the bacteria and also to cells of the host. This can result in damaged mitochondrial DNA as well as nuclear DNA. This is being done without the knowledge or consent of the patient.
Even though this is far from rare, any number of people who's lives have been ruined by these drugs is unacceptable.
Thank you for bringing awareness.
Tammy
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Mark Girard
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Doctors smirk and mock us to our faces for suggesting that a drug they prescribed did all this damage to us and the worse the damage the deeper the denial, all because they were told these drugs are some of the safest ever made. Bayer’s sales force even uses the phrase “Safe as Cipro” when describing other drugs they are pushing just to instill the false belief that these drugs are harmless. It is much easier for a busy doctor to believe the lies their drug dealers tell them and to cash their fat bonus checks than it is to investigate what is really happening to their patients/victims and take responsibility for wrecking our lives, and we are talking about LOTS OF LIVES. The package insert for Levaquin says that just under 1% of patients experience severe side effects but of course these numbers come from one tiny 2 month study; the best of many of course. The real numbers are exponentially higher but even at the 1% that Johnson & Johnson admits to we are talking about hundreds of thousands of people horribly damaged each year by just their one brand of these poisons. Most of the time people do not experience the adverse reaction until weeks, months, even years later so they do not make the connection to the antibiotic, or chemo-therapeutic actually, as these drugs are not traditional antibiotics cultured from living organisms but rather they are chemicals which, when administered at the proper dose for the proper amount of time will hopefully kill off unwanted bacteria without doing too much harm to the host. Unfortunately, studies have shown that doctors consistently prescribe too much for too long. These are the atom-bombs of antibiotics, made for things like anthrax but often prescribed for sniffles or even "just in case". The doctors should assume more responsibility for their actions but I believe the vast majority of them are only guilty of willful blindness and gross negligence; the real criminals are the executives who know damn well what they are doing and who spend huge amounts of cash convincing doctors this crap is safe all while we are desperately trying to raise a just a little bit of money to fund studies that Big Pharma should have been required to do before the drugs were ever approved, like determining whether certain people are likely to have an adverse reaction and how to help those who have already had one. The executives of J&J and Bayer are criminals of the highest order who belong behind bars for the rest of their lives and whose assets should be seized to compensate the victims of their ongoing crimes against humanity. Both companies should pay many billions of dollars to the victims even if it means seizing the companies and dismantling them in order to compensate the millions of people they have murdered or maimed.
Folks, if you suspect you were poisoned by one of these drugs please go to the Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Group or one of the many other support groups for people who have been “floxed”. Best wishes to anyone who has been rolled over by the hardened criminals running BIG PHARMA, left to suffer and fend for themselves despite horrible damage of one sort or another while the filthy rich psychopaths who did this to us laugh and joke about our predicament in their Lear-jets and on their yachts. Anyway here is the link to FTG:
www.facebook.com/groups/46690244194/