Which antibiotics cause confusion

Benefits include:. Join Now See All Benefits. Thank you for your patience. Delirium causes mental confusion that may be accompanied by hallucinations and agitation.

Medications are often the cause of delirium, but antibiotics are not necessarily the first medications doctors may suspect. A total of 54 different antibiotics were involved, from 12 different classes of antibiotics ranging from commonly used antibiotics such as sulfonamides and ciprofloxacin to intravenous antibiotics such as cefepime and penicillin.

About 47 percent had delusions or hallucinations, 14 percent had seizures, 15 percent had involuntary muscle twitching and 5 percent had loss of control of body movements. Plus, EEG, a test that detects electrical activity in the brain, was abnormal in 70 percent of the cases. The researchers identified three types of delirium and other brain problems related to antibiotics.

Type 1 was characterized by seizures and most often associated with penicillin and cephalosporins. Type 2 was marked by symptoms of psychosis and associated with procaine penicillin, sulfonamides, fluoroquinolones and macrolides.

Both Type 1 and Type 2 had a quick onset of symptoms, within days. Once antibiotics were stopped, symptoms also stopped within days. Type 3 was characterized by abnormal brain scans and impaired muscle coordination and other signs of brain dysfunction, and was only associated with the drug metronidazole.

The beginning of noticeable symptoms took weeks instead of days. Symptoms also took longer to go away once the antibiotic was stopped. Bhattacharyya noted that all of the patients had an active infection that could not be ruled out as the cause of the delirium and other brain problems. A scale used to determine whether side effects can be attributed to a drug found that the association was possible in most cases. When infections that affected the central nervous system were not included, the association was probable.

Materials provided by American Academy of Neurology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Science News. The young woman arrived at Massachusetts General Hospital confused, slurring her speech, and shaking. Neurologist Shamik Bhattacharyya thought she may have had a stroke.

But after an evaluation, the medical team found that her symptoms were actually a side effect of an antibiotic called metronidazole she had been taking chronically for an irritable bowel disorder. Doctors rarely suspect antibiotics as a cause of neurological problems — but they should, according to a new study from Bhattacharyya and colleagues at BWH and Harvard Medical School.

Antibiotics cause three distinct types of brain dysfunction, the researchers found, and doctors should learn to recognize them in order to stop or switch antibiotics when it's possible.

It may be more common than we think. Delirium — including confusion, hallucinations, and seizures — is a common health problem in hospitals, estimated to affect as many as 50 percent of elderly patients and 82 percent of intensive care patients.