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Are Your Medications Causing Hearing Loss?
It’s not uncommon for drugs to have labels regarding various undesirable side effects. What many people don’t realize is that there are many medications that cause hearing loss. Ototoxic drugs are medications that can cause damage to the ears, such as hearing loss, ringing in the ears or tinnitus, and balance disorders. Although there are currently more than 200 medications that are known to be ototoxic, it is a fairly new revelation that even some of the most common over-the-counter and prescription drugs can cause loss of hearing.
Symptoms of Ototoxicity
With a list of more than 200 ototoxic medications, the shortest way to determine whether you may be suffering from hearing loss as a result of taking certain medicines is to consider whether you have any of the associated symptoms. The most common symptoms associated with ototoxicity include:
- Ringing in the ears, also known as tinnitus
- Hearing loss in one or both ears
- Reduced coordination in movements
- An unsteady gait
- Bouncing or oscillating vision
Some of the Many Ototoxic Drugs
What’s most alarming about ototoxic drugs is that some are everyday meds. The following are a few of the most common types of ototoxic drugs:
- Acetaminophen, which is the generic name for Tylenol
- Ibuprofen
- Certain antibiotics
- Chemotherapy drugs, including cisplatin and carboplatin, which cause permanent hearing damage
- Aspirin can cause temporary damage to the hearing
- Aminoglycoside, which treats meningitis and bacterial infections that are drug-resistant, is known to cause permanent damage to hearing
- Vicodin and Percocet, which contain acetaminophen
The circumstances in which the various ototoxic drugs are prone to cause hearing loss differ, from one drug to another. Vicodin, for instance, can cause sudden, profound deafness as a result of taking significant doses over the course of several months or years.
When patients are treated for cancer with cisplatin or carboplatin, doctors say hearing loss can be expected; such cures may take some or all of the hearing, but they save lives.
Some ear drops used to treat ear infections are known to cause hearing loss.
Quinine, which treats malaria, and loop diuretics, which treat some types of heart and kidney conditions, both cause temporary hearing damage
What to do when Taking Ototoxic Medications
If your doctor advises you that a medication you need to take is ototoxic, monitor your hearing and your balance before beginning treatment and during the treatment period. See an audiologist to get a baseline record of your hearing and balance. Baseline records including word recognition, high-pitched testing, and various other tests. This information can influence your doctor’s decision to stop or make changes to drug therapy before hearing loss occurs.
In some cases, drugs cannot be changed or stopped. In those cases, an audiologist can help you manage the effects of resulting hearing loss.
Significant hearing loss has far-reaching effects. It’s important for all of us to be aware of factors that can contribute to loss of hearing, such as ototoxic drugs, so that we can avoid them whenever possible.
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