Common antibiotics may be linked to temporary mental confusion

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/aaon-cam021116.php

Public Release: 17-Feb-2016
Common antibiotics may be linked to temporary mental confusion
American Academy of Neurology

Antibiotics may be linked to a serious disruption in brain function, called delirium, and other brain problems, more than previously thought, according to a "Views and Reviews" article published in the Feb. 17, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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.

"People who have delirium are more likely to have other complications, go into a nursing home instead of going home after being in the hospital and are more likely to die than people who do not develop delirium," said author Shamik Bhattacharyya, MD, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "Any efforts we can make to help identify the cause of delirium have the potential to be greatly beneficial."

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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.

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