Obese patients may need custom doses of certain antibiotics, research suggests – CTV

June 09, 2025

Research suggests obesity can interfere with the effectiveness of antibiotics for humans, resulting in too much or too little drug exposure, according to a new systematic review of obesity and antibiotic dosing studies by a team of medical researchers.

This systematic review was conducted to “extract and compile evidence to guide antibiotic dose adjustments in patients with obesity.”

The review, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases on May 15, proposed “consensus guidelines” for prescribing antibiotics to obese patients, describing their research as “in-depth systematic review of the medical literature on dosing and antibiotics.”

Obesity can alter how antibiotics are distributed within the body due to physiological changes such as body composition or even organ dysfunction.

“Substantial changes can occur in the volume of distribution due to increased fat and muscle mass, and tissue drug concentrations might be lowered,” the review says.

Mahyar Etminan, a drug safety epidemiologist with EpiLytics Consulting who was not involved in the research but reviewed the publication, explained that obese patients need higher dosages of antibiotics due to the high levels of body tissue.

Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/obese-patients-may-need-custom-doses-of-certain-antibiotics-research-suggests/

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