The fact that Cipro and quinolones can cause permanent, untreatable tendon damage as highlighted by the need for a black box warning, that leaves patients with crippling untreatable pain, is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the other severe and permanently disabling adverse reactions that Cipro and other quinolones can inflict. The product information sheets provided by quinolone manufacturers also fail to indicate that some individuals will suffer from multiple adverse reactions that will become permanent and untreatable.

I took Levaquin 2 months ago for a UTI. After the third dose, I went from a healthy 34 yr old to a 100 yr old woman. I had myalgia, extreme anxiety and panic, insomnia, tremors, neuropathy, tinnitus, blurred vision, and joint and tendon pain. Most of the symptoms have either diminished or gone away except for the joint and tendon pain, tinnitus, blurred vision, slight neuropathy, and some anxiety.

"Thus, this trend may reflect... a previously unrecognized tendency toward greater neurotoxicity with levofloxacin."

Convulsions and toxic psychoses have been reported in patients receiving fluoroquinolones, including LEVAQUIN®. Fluoroquinolones may also cause increased intracranial pressure and central nervous system stimulation which may lead to tremors, restlessness, anxiety, lightheadedness, confusion, hallucinations, paranoia, depression, nightmares, insomnia, and, rarely, suicidal thoughts or acts. These reactions may occur following the first dose.

One of the best known of these cases is the experience of Philadelphia fiction writer Diane Ayres, who in 1992 took a single Floxin tablet that her physician prescribed for a minor urinary tract infection and wound up delirious in the emergency room six hours later. She is now diagnosed with manic-depressive illness triggered by the powerful antibiotic, for which she has been treated with medication for nine years, says her husband, investigative journalist Stephen Fried.