Is Meloxicam Ototoxic?

Does anyone know if Meloxicam is safe to take with tinnitus? Is the medication ototoxic?

 

In high doses and over a period of time Meloxicam can kill some hair cells. Less than 15 mg / day for less than a month shouldn't impact you.

 

Thank you

 

My tinnitus got worse with Meloxicam 15mg/day. I'm not sure if the hair cell damage is permanent or not - I only took Meloxicam for a very short time so at least I hope there's no permanent damage.

Tinnitus is mentioned as a 'rare' side-effect in the brochure of the meloxicam I have (EuroGenerics).

 

Careful!

Update for 2019 readers: I started taking Meloxicam 15 mg prescribed by my Orthopedist for back pain three weeks ago (March 11th, 2019) and have had tinnitus since the middle of the night on the 6th day of treatment, March 19th. I awoke with ringing in my ears so loud I actually thought there was something electronic ringing in the house. I called the Ortho doc the next day and the nurse instructed me to stop the Meloxicam and see my primary care doctor. I scheduled with the primary but before I could make it I started getting dizzy, my blood pressure spiked, and I wound up in the ER.

I have had severe tinnitus and ear pressure since then unabated. YouTube videos of brown noise and chimes and bells, drinking lots of water, resting in bed, and a low salt diet help the symptoms. I've had blood tests, a CT Scan, seen an ENT and I will have an MRI soon (for my back) but I have a feeling this may not go away easily.

Note 1: I have had to be very proactive and patient with our healthcare system in America; in every case pushing the system to help me out, rather than being treated like a person in distress. Good luck to anyone who is in our system; the care is very uneven!

Note 2: I will update on this site if it ever stops or improves.

Note 3: I am in excellent physical condition, a surfer, jogger, veteran, 45 year old male with no history of cardio or ENT problems, no allergies to medications prior to this.

 

We don't know what is ototoxic and what isn't because audiologist don't care about hearing loss outside of the vitals of human speech ranges.

Hearing loss in background noise such as a hearing test citing the words "airplane" "horse" and "flower" while music is playing over. Isn't the same as hearing loss in total silence citing those words, some people only have hearing loss that is noticable in background noise and the hearing test finds no damage. There are also frequencies above 8khz that audiologist seem to forget.

 

Any update on this? I also took Meloxicam 15 mg for eight days for an ankle injury and noticed ringing on the sixth or fifth. That was almost two years ago and it still hasn’t resolved fully. Some days it’s less but it’s almost always there and has caused me a great amount of distress. I reported it to that doctor and he laughed. I have been angry ever since and am on the boards this morning because u wish I could sleep but all I hear is the ringing today.

 

I’m not sure? I take it sometimes. I have 7.5 mg tablets.