Where Can I Find a List of Ototoxic Drugs?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady asked,

What is a good website to get a list of ototoxic drugs?

There are a number of websites that list a few of the many ototoxic drugs that are out there. One that I like is otologist Dr. Timothy Hain’s website, but this website is very conservative and just lists the more ototoxic drugs. In order to be even reasonably complete, such a list would have to contain information on more than 1,000 ototoxic substances.

A good article to read about ototoxicity (which also lists a fair number of ototoxic drugs) is my article “Ototoxicity—the Hidden Menace“.

If you do a search on this website, you will find a good number of articles on specific ototoxic drugs.

However, just having a list of ototoxic drugs isn’t really all that helpful. You see, 83% of the top 200 prescription drugs can be ototoxic. Thus, in order to avoid all ototoxic drugs, you’d have to avoid taking drugs in the first place!

What you really need is an annotated list detailing the kinds of ototoxic side effects a given drug can cause. For example, is the drug known to cause tinnitus or hearing loss or hyperacusis or vertigo or ear pain. You want to know how likely any given side effect will occur—is the risk of occurrence 15% or just 1 in
10,000? You also want to know how severe a side effect is likely to be if it does occur—will it just be mild dizziness or severe intractable vertigo. In addition, you want to know whether the resulting side effects are likely to be temporary or permanent.

As far as I know, the only reasonably complete source of such information that is readily available in one place and is in an easy-to-read format is contained in my book “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“.