According to france-acouphenes.org, a french association aiming at informing the public about tinnitus, fluoxetine has been associated with hear loss. Though tinnitus associated with fluoxetine treatment has been documented, I wonder if hearing loss has been documented also in association with fluoxetine.
I tried to reach to this association, to no avail at this point. I will update my request, should they contact me back.
Thanks in advance!
Not as far as I am aware. There's no mention of this as a side effect in my copy of the British national Formulary, (albeit's over three years old) but scrutiny of more recent official sites makes no mention of it.
I suppose that it could always be an idiosyncratic effect.
Any co-morbidirties or other meds?
What sort of hearing loss was it? how severe?, has the person experienced any improvement when/if they stopped?
Bw
Chris Ide
Thank you for your answer Christopher William Ide .
I received a response from the association, stating that the informations on their website were sourced as feedback from people suffering from hearing impairment and studies, when referenced.
The person that contacted me back is a volunteer and could not provide more details, but specified that this type of impairment could well be temporary, and cease with the end of the medication intake, as your questions point to.
As for my question, one of my relatives suffered from tinnitus before even beginning taking fluoxetine, but thought it might be increasing, and looking into it found this website and deemed the possibility of hear loss to be ominous.
Thanks again, I will update if there is a development.
Regards,
Dear Ettiene,
There is a significant serotoninergic and dopaminergic input to the cochlear nuclei and also to the cochlea. Thus a potential mechanism for an influence of Fluoxetine in the auditory system exists and may be at the basis of some auditory alterations observed during fluoxetine administration.
Best regards,
Enrique
Thank you Enrique Soto for your input.
Would you say your take is that symptoms would indeed recede whenever the administration ends?
Regards,
Etienne
Dear Etienne,
If the action is taken place in the serotonergic system which makes a synaptic-modulatory input to auditory and cochlear system most probably yes. However, I understand sometimes the serotoninergic related changes may imply neuronal sprouting and significant changes in neuronal architecture, thus producing actions which should not be reversible.
Regards
Enrique
Thank you for your answer, complete yet understandable for the layman I am in these subjects.
I will keep you posted if further developments occur.
Regards,
Etienne
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