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6 medications that can cause deafness, dizziness, and ringing in the ears.
Hearing health often goes unnoticed until problems such as deafness, dizziness, or tinnitus appear. However, many are unaware that certain medications can directly damage the inner ear. According to the World Health Organization, millions of people could suffer hearing side effects from the use of common medications.
Some antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, or even diuretics, although vital for treating serious illnesses, also pose a hidden risk: ototoxicity. This term describes the irreversible damage that certain drugs cause to the sensory cells in the ear, which are essential for hearing and maintaining balance.
Therefore, identifying medications that cause hearing problems is key to preventing complications. Scientific research has identified six main groups of drugs with adverse effects on hearing, alerting both doctors and patients.
Aminoglycoside Antibiotics and Hearing Loss
Aminoglycoside antibiotics such as gentamicin, amikacin, and tobramycin are used to treat serious infections. However, Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine reports that between 20% and 50% of patients develop hearing damage after use.
According to a study in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, this effect is due to the accumulation of the drug in the hair cells of the inner ear, where it generates free radicals that irreversibly destroy them, causing progressive deafness and, in many cases, persistent tinnitus.
Furthermore, an article in The Anatomical Record warns that some aminoglycosides not only affect hearing but also balance. Gentamicin, for example, is highly vestibulotoxic, and can cause chronic dizziness and loss of stability.
Cisplatin and other chemotherapy drugs
Cisplatin is one of the most effective drugs against solid tumors, with very high cure rates for testicular cancer. However, a study published in the Journal of the Chinese Medical Association documents that up to 77% of treated patients develop irreversible hearing loss.
This drug enters the inner ear through specific transporters. The article in Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine explains that once inside, it damages cell DNA, blocks vital processes, and generates oxidative stress. The result is cell death and cumulative hearing impairment.
Other compounds in the same family, such as carboplatin or oxaliplatin, can also damage the ear. However, research published in The Anatomical Record points to cisplatin as the agent with the greatest potential to harm hearing.
Loop diuretics and their auditory risks
According to the study in The Anatomical Record, loop diuretics, such as furosemide and bumetanide, are used to treat hypertension and heart disease. Although their ototoxic effects are usually temporary, when combined with aminoglycoside antibiotics, they can cause irreversible damage.
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