Levaquin and Alcohol

Levaquin and alcohol have no specific drug interactions and alcohol does not appear to reduce the efficacy of Levaquin in treating bacterial infections.

Levaquin, generic name levofloxacin, is an antibiotic in the fluoroquinalone class of medications, and is a very broad spectrum antibiotic. This means that a wide variety of different bacteria are killed by Levaquin. This can b an advantage in that the chances that the bacteria causing infection is going to respond to the Levaquin, but has the disadvantage that many normally occurring bacteria that make up the bowel flora are also going to be killed. This may be the reason that the fluoroquinalone antibiotics are among the most common causes of Clostridium difficiele colitis.

For these reasons, as well as some potentially serious Levaquin side effects, more narrow-spectrum antibiotics are usually the first option for most types of bacterial infections.

Levaquin is indicated for many different infections including cellulitis, prostatitis, anthrax, respiratory tract infections etc. Like the other fluoroquinalones Levoquin is among a small number of antibiotics that penetrate the blood-testis barrier and is effective against prostate and epididymis infections.

The ingestion of both levaquin and alcohol in combination, although not specifically contraindicated, may be problematic if the alcohol is used in excess and leads the patient to forget their Levaquin doses, to not get adequate rest and fluids to allow the body to heal, or if poor nutrition is associated with the excess alcohol intake. It is wise to either not use alcohol when ill enough to be on levoquin, or to limit alcohol intake to moderate amounts.