Augmentin Retard — Ototoxic? Safe for Someone with Tinnitus? Experiences?

Dear all... I have had tinnitus for 5 months, I got it after a grommet was placed in my ear because of an ear infection. With the passing months the level of the tinnitus has decreased but never gone away.

Now I have a horrible sinus infection which we already tried to treat with nasal spray and rinses with no success. After a CT scan ENT doctor gave me Augmentin Retard 1000 mg. 2 pills in the morning and 2 pills in the evening. And prednisone 5 mg once a day.

After reading the stories here about this medicine and spikes I got scare to take the medicine. I took it yesterday as prescribed and I have no markable changes in my tinnitus today but doubting if I should take it today.

Did some of you have a good experience with this medicine? With no spikes or spikes just turning back to normal after stopping with the medicine?

Thank you all!

 

Amoxicillin has never caused me any issues. I've been on it 3 times since I got tinnitus.

 

@Aira019 - I found the following in the online article: -- Is Augmentin Ototoxic?
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The reason Augmentin is not listed in my drug book (3rd edition) is that it is not known to be ototoxic. It is actually one of the very few antibiotics of which I know that is not reported to be ototoxic.
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January 29, 2015 Update: I wrote the above back in December, 2007. Up to that point, I had not found any reference that indicated that Amoxicillin was ototoxic. Since then, I have learned otherwise. Here’s what I now know about Amoxicillin ototoxicity. The following information will be included in the 4th edition of my drug book whenever in comes out–probably in a couple of years.

Amoxicillin has been reported to cause hearing loss in a few people, and tinnitus in a number of people. In addition, and more commonly, numbers of people end up with dizziness, vertigo and vestibular disorders from taking Amoxicillin. Here are some anecdotal reports I have received on this drug.

A man got mild tinnitus when he took Augmentin for pneumonia.

A lady reported, “I just took Augmentin and the volume of my tinnitus went up. I don’t think I can bear this level of tinnitus.”

A man’s tinnitus went from a 2 (out of 10) to an 8 after he took a course of Augmentin for his sinusitis.

A lady reported, “I took a course of Augmentin Duo Forte tablets and have had severe tinnitus since day two of taking the medication.”

A man explained, “My doctor recently prescribed Augmentin for sinusitis, and I took a complete course. Result: loss of hearing in both ears, with volume and clarity diminished significantly across all frequency ranges, but especially in the highs. I now have to cup my ears to hear clearly what people are saying. The loss set in motion is progressive, in other words its getting worse from day to day, even though I ceased the course a week ago.”

A lady wrote, “I was prescribed 1g (as against 625 mg) dose of Augmentinfor a persistent typhoid infection. On the last day of the two-week regime, I lost 80% hearing in my left ear as well as developed tinnitus. I went to three separate ENT specialists, where I was told it was not the Augmentinwhen I was pretty sure that my hearing was perfect before taking the drug. Its been almost 2 years since then and my hearing has not come back, but the ringing is still there in my left ear.”

As you can see, Amoxicillin really is ototoxic to some degree. Disregard anything I have previously written to the contrary. The same holds true for Acetaminophen. It is now also known to be ototoxic, contrary to what I have written about it in the past. Sometimes a lot of years pass before the ototoxic side effects of a drug finally come to light. For example, Erythromycin first appeared on the market in 1952, and doctors prescribed it for 20 years before someone put 2 and 2 together and realized, “Hey, this drug is ototoxic”. In the case of Vicodin, it took 21 years. In the case of Acetaminophen, it took an incredible 117 years!.

 

I got a spike after taking Augmentin. I took amoxicillin on a number of occasions, and never had any spikes.

 

Considering the amount of prescriptions written everyday all over the world for pill form Augmentin, where's the concrete proven reports of ototoxcity? We don't have enough info about these individuals who have claimed Augmentin causing hearing loss. Every person that has claimed hearing loss (1) may be or have taken several different kinds of Rx and/or OTC meds (2) repeated and lifetime noise exposures (3) recent and old head injuries ...and anything else that can contribute to hearing loss. Everyone's personal health, diet, age, allergies, lifestyle and living conditions are different and must be taken into account when making and reading such a claim. Long term stress causes more problems like high blood pressure leading to heart attack or stroke, hearing and vision loss, mental health complications from general anxiety to full blown panic attacks and other health problems. I appreciate this site but it can be a rabbit hole.

 

Bill, I am confused. I was diagnosed prostate issue and dr prescribed Augmentin (brand-name). I check the drug list and it said the generic of it is Amoxicillin. Could you clarify or explain are these two you mentioned the same drug or not? Thanks

 

I've taken it several times with no problems, it's probably the safest antibiotic in this regard.

 

Augmentin is co-amoxiclav. In other words amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid. I’ve had it twice since my tinnitus became a problem and the first time was a strong dose while I had sepsis (amongst flucloxicillin, metronidazole, amoxicillin, and clindamycin).

None of them had an effect on my tinnitus.

 

lineard, Can you identify what is (name again) the safest antibiotic? Just want to make sure. (I am a TT follower. Admire all your great/informative postings)

 

Augmentin / amoxicillin.

I am not a doctor and my personal experience shouldn't be taken as medical advice. I think antibiotics in general are over used and I barely ever take them, but if I have something like a nasty puncture would from a dirty truck trailer and the ER doc says "taking these make it less likely that you get some weird infection that makes you lose your leg", I take them

 

I'm on amoxicillin right now and finish my course on Saturday. So far no spikes or anything out of the ordinary.

 

I also thought that Augmentin=Amoxicillin. When I took Augmentin, I got a spike. This is when I searched this forum and the net and eventually I figured out that Augmentin = Amoxicillin + potassium clavulanate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoxicillin/clavulanic_acid

If you search this forum, you will see horror stories about Augmentin, but not so much about Amoxicillin. Note, that just because there Are horror stories (or just because a drug is said to be ototoxic), chances are that 90-99.9% of the people taking it will not have any issues.

If you can, try taking Amoxicillin by iteself, and not Augmentin. But that clavulanic component of Augmentin is possibly making Amoxicillin more effective. So there might be a reason why your doctor wants you to take Augmenting and not Amoxicillin by itself. Ask your doctor whether it is a good idea for you to try taking Amoxicillin by itself.

 

Bill/ED209,
So nice of you to take effort and time to clarify. I understand and agree your description and suggestion of both Augmentin and Amoxicillin, which was also explained by ED209. Hats off to you great guys giving this forum a clear and useful info that everybody benefitted.

 

Hey.

I took Augmentin and it gave me tinnitus. I took it for 21 days.

Did your tinnitus go away after you stopped taking it?

 

I took it only for one day. It ended up being just a temporary spike.

 

When did the spike stop?

 

I've had a large number of spikes, so I don't remember how long this particular one lasted. I think it took a week or two...

 

Taking Augmentin right now for a UTI. Augmentin has definitely made my tinnitus worse. I haven’t gotten a lot of sleep these past few days (I’ve been on it for 5 days now) and my anxiety is continuing to get worse. I’m just really hoping that it goes away once I’ve finished the course, in 5 days.