• Samiha Mohsen, James A Dickinson, and Ranjani Somayaji.
• Master's degree student in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary in Alberta.
• Can Fam Physician. 2020 Sep 1; 66 (9): 651659651-659.

ObjectiveTo gather information about antibiotic side effects to be used as a reference and learning resource for prescribing physicians.Quality Of EvidenceA search of websites of various independent national agencies and recent review articles was performed. A summary table of adverse effects for each group of antimicrobials was then created, identifying allergies, short-term harms, and serious harms. The occurrence rate of each was listed when available.Main MessageAntimicrobials are necessary to treat various diseases. However, they cause adverse effects, such as allergic reactions, in addition to increased bacterial resistance. There is increasing awareness of the need to detect and evaluate adverse effects associated with medicines. Recently, severe and serious harms have been described for commonly used antibiotics. Therefore, current knowledge of harms from systemic oral antibiotics that are regularly used in family medicine is summarized in this article.ConclusionIt is difficult to identify and ascribe exact probabilities of most harms. However, all common antimicrobials create harms that must be considered when choosing whether to prescribe. Many adverse effects go unrecognized by prescribers. As side effects are inevitable, antimicrobials must be prescribed for as short a course as possible, only when the probability of benefit is greater than the risk of harm.Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

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