Zantac Ototoxic Reaction?

[quietatnight]

I need some advice, I have been having a problem since about 3 weeks ago after taking 1 zantac 75 mil that was prescribed by my GI doctor to help control of my acid re-flux condition. I have had this condition for over 25 years and have been controlling it taking priosec with no effect on my tinnitus. 20 minutes after I took the one zantac my tinnitus increased to a new level and seems to be staying that way ever since. I'm assuming that I had some kind of ototoxic reaction from taking the zantac, even though I checked and zantac is NOT listed on the FDA data sheets as an ototoxic medication. I Regret now not checking here first before I took it, because I read that one person on here claims to have gotten his tinnitus fro taking zantac.

Now here is the dellema, I'm taking 3 medications right now, prilosec to control my acid reflux, clonazepam for anxiety and seroquel for sleep. I have been taking these medications for over 25 years never had any problems with any of them acting ototoxic onmy ears, or effecting my tinnitus in anyway. But now with the tinnitus appearing to be increasing every day since I took the zantac. I have started to wonder if maybe taking the zantac has weakened my ears to the point were they have now turned on me and are no longer able to handle these other drugs, that could now also be ototoxic because of it ? I have did some research and found out that these other drugs with the exception of clonazepam can be ototoxic to some people. I have started to try and get off of the clonazepam and seroquel, by trying to taper off, but even that can cause an increase in my tinnitus if I try and taper too fast. That seems to be happening to me now and my tinnitus is still going up. So I was hoping that maybe someone who has some experience with medications that are ototoxic in here may have some information or a suggestion, should I get my medications back to to where they were when they were working for me and take the chance that they won't end up being ototoxic increasing my tinnitus and then taper off slowly, OR Just stop taking all of the medications.


I'm sorry for the long post, and appreciate you reading it, as you can see it's a complicated problem.

Any input or suggestions would really be appreciated at his point. Because I'm out of Ideas and or direction.


Thank You

Louie

Quietatnight

 

[Dana]

should I get my medications back to to where they were when they were working for me and take the chance that they won't end up being ototoxic increasing my tinnitus and then taper off slowly, OR Just stop taking all of the medications.

Stopping all the medications is out of the question, so continue taking them, no dilemma here.
The medications did not change into ototoxic. That is impossible.
Clonazepam, like you said, is not ototoxic, and not that i would not stop it, but, if i were you, i would increase the dose for one day.
You take seroquel for sleeping? That means that your clonazepam is not very high, because clonazepam has a sedative effect, and if you do not feel that effect, this means that the dosage is not very high and you can increase it.
That is what i would do, increase the dose of clonazepam, checking with the doctor first.
Seroquel, i do not care for. If you want to sleep, you can do that with clonazepam.
How much clonazepam do you take, and what brand of Clonazepam you use?

 

[quietatnight]

First off, Thank You for getting back to me Dana, a lot that you said makes sense no doubt. I'm confused as I can be at this point, because by any sense of the word logic, taking 1 zantac should not have been a problem and none of this should be happening to me at all, it's crazy. I was doing fine and the next thing I knew, was right after I took that zantac everything fell apart. I did not know that the brand of clonazepam is important, but I will call the pharmacy and see what it is and let you know. All of my doctors have no idea what happened or what's going on either. All I know is that I have no idea where to go from here. I did not mean that "my medications changed into ototoxic." what I was trying to say, is that maybe when my ears were exposed to that ototoxic effect from the zantac that I took, it could have killed off enough of the hair cells in the ears to weakened them to a point were now they are more easily damaged from medications that weren't a threat to me before, when I had stronger less damaged ears ? I hope that I explained it better. It's just my theory, and the only way I can come up with some way to explain how a medication can be no threat for years, then a problem now. I agree with you it seems impossible. I am going to use your suggestion to increase the dose of clonazepam.


Thank You again

Louie

Quietatnight

 

[Samantha R]

@quietatnight
It does seem unlikely to me that Zantac could be ototoxic and for a reaction to happen in your ears within 20 minutes.... I would have thought that is very quick for it to be absorbed into your bloodstream, get to your inner ear, destroy some hair cells and increase your tinnitus. Is there anything else that happened at the same time? Do you get spikes as a normal part of your tinnitus?
I know another member here on the forum who developed tinnitus 24 hours after IV Cipro - an antibiotic notorious for it's ototoxicity.... so it doesn't make sense to me how it could happen to you after 20 minutes of oral administration of a seemingly innocuous antacid....

I'd be willing to be this is temporary though I know it's crap just waiting around and hoping it goes back down.

I don't know much about Seroquel and I use Clonazepam/Oxazepam very sparingly and find they help immensely with sleep.
What dose are you on of Clonazepam? If this doesn't help with sleep then perhaps you have developed a tolerance to the drug... benzos are "addictive" in the sense that you need more to get the same effect.
You absolutely should not stop taking Clonazepam cold turkey, particularly because of the amount of time you've been taking the drug already. This would most definitely require a careful taper. So that's not an option for you.
I'm honestly not sure about Seroquel....
I definitely know what you are saying though about the drugs now being ototoxic. It's just so hard, almost impossible to know if they are doing further damage.
How would you cope without taking these medications?

 

[quietatnight]

@Samantha R

Thank You for responding to my post, I guess I should be a little more spefic the reaction started about 20 minutes but took about an hour or so before I really noticed that something was going on. Their was nothing going on sound wise, but I had not had any sleep for a couple of days before. Yes I get spikes all the time from sound expouser, but I'm used to that, and they are usually not that intense, and always go away in a day or 2. Clonazepam has always helped me with my spikes so that's a good thing. What I ended up doing last night was to get my medication level back up to my normal level. My Seroquel and my Clonazepam by doing that I was able to get in 10 hours sleep. I woke up with lower tinnitus then I had the day before, after I was up and doing things and started to let sound back in like running the washing machine and TV I could tell that my tinnitus was trying to ramp back up again. So I took a Clonazepam right away and it stop that and lowered my tinnitus back down a bit. It's been like that all day I hope that it stays that way tonight. I just took my prolosec and I'm hoping that it will not effect my tinnitus. I would say that the most likely medications that could possibly effect my tinnitus would be the prilosec or the Seroquel, the Clonazepam should not be a problem.

My plan is now that my medications are back up to my normal level, that I will wait a couple of days and try and start to taper off of the Seroquel first but do it very slow. Then I will work on getting off of the Clonazepam next and finally the prilosec. that will be the tough one to get off, I still don't know how I'm going to pull that one off ?



Anyway that's my update.


Thank You

Louie

Quietatnight