Tinnitus is the perception of noises in the ear in the absence of an external sound.  The noises heard in the ears are described as a buzzing, roaring, hissing, ringing sound.  The sound can occur in one or both ears and it may take place in any of the four sections of the ear:  inner ear, middle ear, outer ear and the brain.  The frequency of the tinnitus sounds can be intermittent or constant.

Not a lot of people know that there are drugs that cause tinnitus.  But it must not however be made an excuse to stop medicating or altering dosage of any medication without any advice from the doctor who prescribed the medication.

A lot of people who have tinnitus are concerned on drugs that cause tinnitus.  A few researches on medical books or in the internet would support that idea since there are several reports on drugs that cause tinnitus.  It has been observed that when these declarations are subjected to scientific examination, the genuine numbers of drugs that cause tinnitus are exceptionally small.  There are also some drugs that cause tinnitus but tends to give the impression of a temporary tinnitus cause once the drug is discontinued the tinnitus disappears.  Some drugs that cause tinnitus are dependent on the dose.  Meaning, a normal dose that is prescribed by a physician will not cause tinnitus.  Abnormally large doses of these drugs result to tinnitus.

We may wonder why there are numerous reports of drugs that cause tinnitus but only a few are scientifically established.  It would be interesting to know the reason why.  Tinnitus is a common condition, and so does taking in drugs for one medical condition or another.  Thus it would be inevitable that there are some coincidences and that some people will develop tinnitus while medicating.  The drug will then be blamed for the tinnitus even if it has nothing to do with it.  Once a patient reports this incident, a doctor then has the obligation to make a report to the Committee on Safety of Medicines.  This report is stored which can be accessed by other doctors so they can advise their own patients.  This means then that it takes only a single report of tinnitus for a drug to be branded as one of the drugs that cause tinnitus even if the tinnitus was just coincidental to the drug taken in by the patient.  Another way for drugs to be labeled as drugs that cause tinnitus is that drugs are dispensed to treat an illness.  Being ill and requiring treatment is stressful which is acknowledged as a tinnitus trigger.  In most cases it is stress and not the drug that is used to treat the illness that causes the tinnitus.

Before taking any prescription or over-the-counter drugs, tinnitus patients will have to inquire from their physicians or pharmacists about the possibility of its ototoxicity.  Drugs that are ototoxic are anti-inflammatories, anti-depressants, diuretics, ibuprofen, oral contaceptives, higher doses of salicylate analgesics, aminoglycoside antibiotics and naproxen sodium.