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I had always thought that fluoroquinolones are generally contraindicated in people taking benzodiazepines, and when I mentioned this to someone recently they hadn't heard about it.
So I took to doing research as I am wont to do, and I actually found more posts by people taking penicillin drugs like amoxicillin and penicillin itself. I did also find many articles regarding fluoroquinolones competing for site receptors with benzodiazepine drugs.
But the research on penicillins was interesting showing they are GABA-A antagonists, reduce benzodiazepine receptor sites, and also compete for benzodiazepine receptor sites:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
It seems that it could theoretically cause neurotoxicity in anyone, but more likely to cause it in people who are renally impaired and anecdotally based on online posts I came across people on benzodiazepines—although that may be a different subclinical phenonemon of disrupting the drug rather than the clinical diseases of NCSE and encephalopathy. I'm not sure how such a line is drawn.
Anyhow, I found it interesting since I always considered the penicillins to be the "vanilla" of the antibiotics.
(Edit: That third link does work, not sure why it gave it that title. This new system is a bit funny.)
So I took to doing research as I am wont to do, and I actually found more posts by people taking penicillin drugs like amoxicillin and penicillin itself. I did also find many articles regarding fluoroquinolones competing for site receptors with benzodiazepine drugs.
But the research on penicillins was interesting showing they are GABA-A antagonists, reduce benzodiazepine receptor sites, and also compete for benzodiazepine receptor sites:
Error - Cookies Turned Off
High doses of penicillin decreases [3H]flunitrazepam binding sites in rat neuron primary culture - PubMed
Penicillin (PC) neurotoxicity (convulsions and encephalopathy) is considered to be due to GABAergic inhibition. The effects of penicillin G(PCG) on [3H]flunitrazepam (FNZ) binding in rat neuron-enriched primary cultures was examined to assess the role of the benzodiazepine (BDZ) receptor in the...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
It seems that it could theoretically cause neurotoxicity in anyone, but more likely to cause it in people who are renally impaired and anecdotally based on online posts I came across people on benzodiazepines—although that may be a different subclinical phenonemon of disrupting the drug rather than the clinical diseases of NCSE and encephalopathy. I'm not sure how such a line is drawn.
Anyhow, I found it interesting since I always considered the penicillins to be the "vanilla" of the antibiotics.
(Edit: That third link does work, not sure why it gave it that title. This new system is a bit funny.)
