Generic Name: amoxicillin

What is amoxicillin?
Amoxicillin is an antibiotic in the penicillin group of drugs. It fights bacteria in your body. Amoxicillin is used to treat many different types of infections caused by bacteria, such as ear infections, bladder infections, pneumonia, gonorrhea, and E. coli or salmonella infection. Amoxicillin is also sometimes used together with another antibiotic called clarithromycin (Biaxin) to treat stomach ulcers caused by Helicobacter pylori infection. This combination is sometimes used with a stomach acid reducer called lansoprazole (Prevacid).

Back to Top

What is the price of this medication and similar alternatives?

Pricing information provided by drugstore.com.

Back to Top

What are the possible side effects of amoxicillin?

Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.

Call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:

• fever, sore throat, and headache with a severe blistering, peeling, and red skin rash;

• nausea, stomach pain, low fever, loss of appetite, dark urine, clay-colored stools, jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes);

• diarrhea that is watery or bloody;

• fever, chills, body aches, flu symptoms;

• easy bruising or bleeding, unusual weakness;

• urinating less than usual or not at all;

• agitation, confusion, unusual thoughts or behavior; or

• seizure (black-out or convulsions).

Less serious side effects are more likely to occur, such as:

• nausea, vomiting, stomach pain;

• vaginal itching or discharge;

• headache;

• swollen, black, or "hairy" tongue; or

• thrush (white patches or inside your mouth or throat).

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Tell your doctor about any unusual or bothersome side effect.

Back to Top

How should I take amoxicillin?
Take this medication exactly as it was prescribed for you. Do not take the medication in larger amounts, or take it for longer than recommended by your doctor. Follow the directions on your prescription label. If you are taking amoxicillin with clarithromycin and/or lansoprazole to treat stomach ulcer, use all of your medications as directed. Be sure to read the medication guide or patient instructions provided with each of your medications. Do not change your doses or medication schedule without advice from your doctor.

Back to Top

What is the most important information I should know about amoxicillin?
Do not use this medication if you are allergic to amoxicillin or to any other penicillin antibiotic, such as ampicillin (Omnipen, Principen), carbenicillin (Geocillin), dicloxacillin (Dycill, Dynapen), oxacillin (Bactocill), penicillin (Beepen-VK, Ledercillin VK, Pen-V, Pen-Vee K, Pfizerpen, V-Cillin K, Veetids), and others. Before using amoxicillin, tell your doctor if you are allergic to cephalosporins such as Ceclor, Ceftin, Duricef, Keflex, and others. Also tell your doctor if you have asthma, liver or kidney disease, a bleeding or blood clotting disorder, mononucleosis (also called "mono"), or any type of allergy.

Back to Top

What happens if I miss a dose?
Take the missed dose as soon as you remember. If it is almost time for your next dose, skip the missed dose and take the medicine at your next regularly scheduled time. Do not take extra medicine to make up the missed dose.

Back to Top

What other drugs will affect amoxicillin?
Before taking amoxicillin, tell your doctor if you are using any of the following drugs: methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Trexall); probenecid (Benemid); a sulfa drug (such as Bactrim or Septra); an antibiotic such as azithromycin (Zithromax), clarithromycin (Biaxin), erythromycin (E.E.S., E-Mycin, Ery-Tab, Erythrocin), telithromycin (Ketek), or troleandomycin (Tao); or a tetracycline antibiotic such as demeclocycline (Declomycin), doxycycline (Adoxa, Doryx, Oracea, Vibramycin), minocycline (Dynacin, Minocin, Solodyn, Vectrin), or tetracycline (Brodspec, Panmycin, Sumycin, Tetracap).

Back to Top

Can I take this if I am pregnant or trying to get pregnant or if I am breastfeeding?

Amoxicillin has been assigned to pregnancy category B by the FDA. Animal studies using 10 times the human dose have failed to reveal any evidence of teratogenicity. Although no controlled data in human pregnancy are available, literature reports of adverse fetal effects are lacking. Amoxicillin is only recommended during pregnancy when benefit outweighs risk.

In the Collaborative Perinatal Project involving 50,282 mother-child pairs, there were 3,546 mother-child pairs exposed to penicillin derivatives in the first trimester. As a group, there was no significant increase in the risk of malformations. In the Michigan Medicaid Birth Defects Study involving 229,101 pregnancies from 1985 to 1992, there were 8,538 first trimester exposures to amoxicillin. Overall, 317 cases of birth defects were observed (363 expected). There was no evidence of an association between first trimester use of amoxicillin and major groups of malformations. A Danish study of 401 women exposed to amoxicillin during pregnancy from 1991 to 2000 did not find an increased risk of birth defects or adverse outcomes compared to women who had taken no medication. Transient decreases in total conjugated estriol, estriol-glucuronide, conjugated estrone, and estradiol plasma concentrations have been reported in pregnant women who received ampicillin and this may also occur with amoxicillin.

Amoxicillin is excreted into human milk in small amounts. Sensitization of the infant may occur. The American Academy of Pediatrics considers the use of amoxicillin to be compatible with breast-feeding. The manufacturer recommends that caution be used when administering amoxicillin to nursing women.

In one study, six women were administered a single 1000 mg dose of amoxicillin on the third postpartum day. Amoxicillin milk concentrations ranged from 0.10 to 0.81 mcg/mL, with a peak concentration measured at 5 hours post-dose. The milk to maternal serum concentration ratio ranged from 0.013 to 0.043.

Back to Top

Who should NOT use this medication?

• Known hypersensitivity to any penicillin.

Back to Top

What happens if I overdose?
Seek emergency medical attention if you think you have used too much of this medicine. Overdose symptoms may include confusion, behavior changes, a severe skin rash, urinating less than usual, or seizure (black-out or convulsions).

Back to Top

What should I discuss with my healthcare provider before taking amoxicillin?
Do not use this medication if you are allergic to amoxicillin or to any other penicillin antibiotic, such as: ampicillin (Omnipen, Principen); carbenicillin (Geocillin); dicloxacillin (Dycill, Dynapen); oxacillin (Bactocill); or penicillin (Beepen-VK, Ledercillin VK, Pen-V, Pen-Vee K, Pfizerpen, V-Cillin K, Veetids, and others). Before using amoxicillin, tell your doctor if you are allergic to any drugs (especially cephalosporins such as Ceclor, Ceftin, Duricef, Keflex, and others), or if you have:

Back to Top

Can I stop taking the medication if I feel better?
If you have been diagnosed with a disease for which an antibiotic is needed, you must complete the prescribed course of treatment. Even if you start to feel better, do not skip any doses and remember to take the medication until it is all gone.

Back to Top

I am on so many medications; do I have to take them all?
This is called polypharmacy—many different medications being used at the same time by one person. Sometimes, being on multiple medications is acceptable and appropriate but at other times it may be problematic. If you are receiving your medications from multiple physicians you need to ensure that they all know what medications you are taking. The best way to do this is to make a list of all the medications you are currently using, including all nutritional supplements, homeopathic remedies, vitamins and over-the-counter drugs (if possible, also include all the diseases you have been diagnosed with). Give a copy to every doctor who takes care of you so they have it on file, this way they can avoid duplicating medications and perhaps even try to consolidate some. After every doctor's visit remember to update the list accordingly. Also, as much as you possibly can, try to use the same pharmacy to fill all your prescriptions, this way any potential drug interactions can be caught and averted.

Back to Top

Where can I get more information?
More Information

Back to Top