Antimicrobial Properties of Various Psychotropic Drugs Against Broad Range Microorganisms

Increasing multiple drug resistance of microorganisms to certain antibiotics is a major health problem of the current clinical practice. Therefore, development of novel broad range antimicrobial agents and increasing efficiency of existing antibiotics are under great interest among scientists. Some psychotropic drugs not only reverse microbial antibiotic resistance but also exhibit direct antimicrobial activity against several biological targets. In the present study, 16 different psychotropic drugs including sertraline, paroxetine, aripiprazole, fluvoxamine, moclobemide, venlafaxine, mianserin, trazodone, mirtazapine, clomipramine, alprazolam, escitalopram, citaloprame, fluoxetine, gabapentin and reboxetine have been examined for their antimicrobial properties against wide range of bacteria, yeast and fungi using disc-diffusion and micro-well dilution assays. The results revealed that except FOR gabapentin, venlafaxine, moclobemide and alprazolam, the remaining drugs tested in this study showed various antimicrobial activities. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor group drugs including sertraline, paroxetine, fluvoxamine and fluoxetine displayed broad range antibacterial activity compared to other psychotropic drugs. Among them, sertraline was also found to be effective against Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. Exploring antimicrobial activities will increase the use and application of these psychotropic drugs in clinical approaches. However, in vivo studies and clinical trials are strictly required to evaluate efficiencies of these chemicals for the treatment of systemic microbial infections.