ArticleDrug safety2003
Relative risk of vaginal candidiasis after use of antibiotics compared with antidepressants in women: postmarketing surveillance data in England.
Article in Drug safety, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03250208 (Probiotics and the Female Urinary Microbiome ProFUM Trial), which is not on this map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Probiotics and the Female Urinary Microbiome ProFUM Trial (Probiotics Effect on the Female Urinary Microbiome)
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- A retrospectively registered pilot randomized controlled trial of postbiotic administration during antibiotic treatment increases microbiome diversity and enriches health-associated taxa.Infection and immunity · 2026Trial
- Oral probiotics and the female urinary microbiome: a double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled trial.International urology and nephrology · 2019Trial
- Therapeutic Repurposing of Sertraline: Evidence for Its Antifungal Activity from In Vitro, In Vivo, and Clinical Studies.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Contribution of Symptomatic, Herbal Treatment Options to Antibiotic Stewardship and Microbiotic Health.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Potential safety signals for antibacterial agents from the Brazilian national pharmacovigilance database (Vigimed/VigiFlow).Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- A Combination of Polybacterial MV140 andFrontiers in immunology · 2020Article
- Effect of norfloxacin therapy for acute, uncomplicated lower urinary tract infection on vaginal Candida prevalence.International urogynecology journal · 2016Article
- Transvaginal hybrid-NOTES appendectomy in routine clinical use: prospective analysis of 13 cases and description of the procedure.Surgical endoscopy · 2014Article
- Her choice: dealing with lactobacilli, vaginitis, and antibiotics.Current infectious disease reports · 2005Article
- Relative risk of vaginal candidiasis after use of antibiotics compared with antidepressants in women.Drug safety · 2005Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundVaginal candidiasis is a common infection in women. The microflora of the vagina are influenced by a number of factors, including pregnancy, oral contraceptive use, menses and diabetes mellitus. Previous antibiotic use is generally accepted to be a risk factor for vaginal candidiasis but the published evidence to support this is limited.
aimTo determine the relative risk of vaginal candidiasis following the use of antibiotics compared with antidepressants in prescription-event monitoring (PEM) studies.
methodsUsing data from postmarketing surveillance studies of six antibiotics and six antidepressants, conducted using the observational cohort technique of PEM, the number of reports of vaginal candidiasis was determined in women aged > or =16 years, in each of the first 7 weeks following a prescription for one of these drugs. The relative risks for vaginal candidiasis following the use of these antibiotics and for each of the individual antibiotics compared with antidepressants were calculated for each week and for the overall 7-week period. Women treated with antidepressants were the most suitable comparator group from the PEM database, as they were of a similar age range and the studies were conducted at a similar time period to those of the antibiotics. Also, there was no pharmacological plausibility for vaginal candidiasis being associated with antidepressants.
resultsThere were 188 reports of vaginal candidiasis in 31 588 women, aged > or =16 years, treated with antibiotics and 70 in the 45 492 treated with antidepressants. The relative risk for vaginal candidiasis (antibiotic/antidepressants), was highest in the second week, 10.70 (95% CI 4.86-23.55) but was also significantly greater in the first and third weeks after the start of treatment. The risk was also higher in each of the 3 weeks after starting the course for five of the antibiotics, compared individually to the group treated with antidepressants, the exception being fosfomycin, which had a much smaller cohort.
conclusionThis study shows a significant increase in the risk of developing vaginal candidiasis following the use of the antibiotics studied (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, norfloxacin, cefixime, azithromycin and fosfomycin) compared with that after taking the antidepressants fluvoxamine, fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline, venlafaxine and nefazodine in these PEM studies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.