Antidepressants Link to Antibiotic Resistance

Abstract

Antidepressants and antibiotics are two of the most relevant medications in modern medicine today; antibiotics keeping general infection at bay and antidepressant prescriptions are on the rise. The aim of the study was to look at if antidepressants are having an impact on the recent rise in antibiotic resistance, as antidepressant prescriptions have been a common rise with antibiotic resistance. The study took three of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants (Fluoxetine, Sertraline, and Amitriptyline) and tested it against Acinetobacter baumannii, an antibiotic resistance threat in the United States (2). The antibiotics were tested on A. baumannii isolates against antibiotics gentamycin, imipenem, colistin, and ciprofloxacin. The study was able to find an exciting link to some of the antidepressants causing resistance to certain antibiotics after varying exposure time. There is much to still be investigated with this problem as only a small number of antidepressants were tested on a small number of antibiotics with one antibiotic resistant bacterium.