We've discussed on this site a number of times the role that antibiotics play in the development of antibiotic resistance. But it turns out that that's just the half of it; new research shows that some non-antibiotic drugs, including painkillers, antipsychotics, and drugs to combat high blood pressure, can also contribute to antibiotic resistance.
These findings are going to make efforts to combat antibiotic resistance harder than previously thought. Many drugs, such as those to combat high blood pressure, are meant to be taken for the rest of the patient's life; one can't just stop taking them because they may affect the bacteria in your gut. What to do?
If there is any good news in this latest research, it is that the tests revealed that a few drugs used to treat other diseases actually turned out to have some antibiotic activity as well, according to an article in the popular press on the subject. Perhaps some of these drugs could be tested further and then used to combat the increasing number of antibiotic resistant bacteria. But it's a long shot.
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