Overview
- In Nature Medicine, investigators linked Sweden’s prescribed drug register with stool microbiome profiles from 14,979 adults to quantify class-specific, long-term effects.
- Clindamycin showed the largest short-term impact (about 47 fewer detected species within a year), while fluoroquinolones and flucloxacillin each tracked with roughly 20 fewer species, with signals detectable four to eight years after exposure.
- Microbial diversity recovered most in the first two years following treatment yet did not appear to fully return to pre-exposure levels.
- Use of clindamycin, fluoroquinolones and flucloxacillin correlated with higher abundance of species previously linked to higher BMI, triglycerides and type 2 diabetes risk.
- Authors are collecting second stool samples from about half the cohort to refine recovery estimates, note the strong flucloxacillin association was unexpected and urge against avoiding clinically necessary antibiotics.