Huge Tinnitus Spike Caused by Amoxicillin

Hello all.

I could really use any advice or remedies that you have used or found from undergoing medication-related spikes. I have been suffering from some sort of sinus infection/virus for the last week, and was given Amoxicillin to treat the illness. After the first dose on this past Thursday, I noticed that my ear pain worsened, became very sharp, and that my tinnitus spiked immediately after the dose. I figured that some slight spike might happen, but that it would eventually go away. That was not the case. After each dose of this medication, the tinnitus got louder and louder. My hearing became very muffled and I was growing very nervous with it causing me any permanent damage. On Saturday, I stopped taking it after two days after visiting the hospital. The nurse advised me to do so after she learned it was making my tinnitus worse. My tinnitus before this incident was about a 4-5... Now it's about a 10. I can hear it over everything, and I'm concerned that it won't go back down.

I went to an ENT yesterday, and they performed a hearing test, which was normal. He observed my ears and told me everything looks fine, but that he thinks I have some form of slight ETD (Eustachian Tube Dysfunction). I don't think the ETD is the main reason for the spike, because before I even took the medication; the tinnitus was bad, but it wasn't audible over everything. What is upsetting is that I specifically asked for Amoxicillin because I've been told it's the least ototoxic drug, and yet, it still spiked my tinnitus through the roof. I've been pretty bummed about this because I have been so careful with not taking ototoxic medications, and I've taken Amoxicillin before without any issues.

Has anyone else had this issue before? If so, how did you handle it? Any thoughts, positive messages or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

-Christina

 

Many years in the medical field and I've never heard of amoxicillin to be specifically ototoxic. Raises the question of what happens to the threshold for ototoxicity of some drugs if damage is already present when a course is started.

 

An overdose of gentamycine can cause hearing problems, even deafness. Never hear it from amixicillin though.

 

Hi,

I took a lot of Amox this year (4 courses !), I don't think it changed my T (I had spikes but there were many possible reasons). You sure it was not Augmentin ? (it has Amox + something else)

 

No, it was not Augmentin. It was Amoxicillin, 500 MG - twice daily. I only took 4 doses and it spiked my tinnitus so badly...I am afraid to ever take anything like that again.

 

I'm sure there's no permanent damage. Give it time.

 

@Foncky I certainly hope so. This level of T is driving me nuts.

 

Short term use of antibotics should not cause any hearing damage...it should be taken forca long duration for hearinh damage to occur as per my audiologist........it might just you being nervous about taking antibotics..... reverse placebo effect.....just relax

 

I had a massive spike after taking amoxilline a few months back, it was especially savage at night with screeching new tones. It did abate after a week or so with many ups and downs. Not sure if it did any lasting 'damage' that will expose itself over time.
Best thing to do is ride it out and see what happens..
Also read a thread on a dutch forum about amoxillin, quite a few people get spikes off it.

 

@PaulBe I agree with your statement. This is scary that a non-ototoxic medication could cause me these types of effects. Any suggestions on what might help this calm down since you're in the medical field?

 

@Sebastians I'm sorry to hear about your spike as well. Do you remember what the dosage or strength of the Amoxicillin was by chance? I've taken it dozens of times without issues so this was quite unusual. I am hoping and praying that it goes back down, I don't think I can deal with this volume permanently.

 

I think 3x 500 mg. So quite a heavy dosage. Spike occured after three days during the night, stopped taking the stuff straight away. The spike went away with ups and downs, so loud day followed by better day over 7-10 days

 

@Sebastians Mine was 500 MG, twice a day. After the first dose, I could tell something was off because my T went through the roof. It's gotten louder over the last few days even though I stopped taking it. It seems to be settling at this volume, but I am still slowly recuperating from this virus. I'm hoping once the virus clears, perhaps the loud spike will go down. It's awful, I wish I had never taken it.

 

Yeah i remember the distress it caused a few months back, keep the faith!

 

@Sebastians I am trying. Is there anything you tried to take after the spike to help it calm down?

 

I just did what i do every day, i take magnesium and nac supps, multivit and sports for one hour. And i may have taken half a zopiclone sleeping pill one night just to get some sleep.

 

@Sebastians what is NAC?

 

N-Acetyl Cysteïne.

This Amoxicilline spike was what I was afraid of some time ago.

 

@Hopeful1 I thought it was nerves in the beginning, too. But I am recuperating from the infection and the volume of my tinnitus has stayed at this extremely loud volume. My audiogram demonstrated no damage to my hearing, but traditional hearing tests do not test for higher frequency hearing loss. The notion that I need to relax when things of this nature happen is echoed throughout this forum constantly. I'm doing the best I can to cope with this. Anxiety did not cause this spike though. I wish more people would understand that you don't have to have "measurable" damage or take a medication for its entire duration to suffer negative side effects.

 

@Codaz do you have any experience with antibiotics worsening your tinnitus?

 

Outside of sedative drugs, no. Sorry. Its a place medicine has left vacated.

 

@PaulBe I see. I have taken melatonin to help me sleep at night and do notice that is slightly better in the morning after I wake up. My doctor prescribed Elavil for sleep and anxiety, but I read that this medication has been known to cause tinnitus. Do you have any knowledge about this?

 

Elavil (amitryptaline) is an older generation tricyclic anti-depressant. I think you will find a number of people on this forum have used it and, like everything here, results are split between causes and improves. Its probably a better drug than a lot of the newer types of AD though which seem a lot more aggressive in nature. It seems to be easier to get off. I have no experience of it myself, and I didn't work in mental health much though. I suppose its a bit like the Amoxil in that while its not generally known to be ototoxic, there probably isn't any research as to whether it worsens pre-existing tinnitus. I'm sure there's others here who know more.

 

@PaulBe Thanks for the info.

 

None taken yet but I'm scared if I get them

 

So how's the spike..

 

My theory is that because ear damage is cumulative and everyone's tolerance is different, at some point some people who take too many ototoxic drugs over time will expeirence hearing loss and T at some point. I'm at a point now where I know any more antibiotics will likely worsen my T further.

 

@Sebastians It went down some, but it is still much louder than it was before I took the medication. @racerfish I have the same problem as I am very sensitive to antibiotics. I am going to try my best to avoid them unless absolutely necessary...

 

I've read that Amox is the safe one.....

 

Apparently my ears missed that memo. :/