This is a great question. I took Ciprofloxacin which was prescribed to me as first-line for traveler's diarrhea while I was traveling for an extended period of

This is a great question. I took Ciprofloxacin which was prescribed to me as first-line for traveler's diarrhea while I was traveling for an extended period of time. Just one dose caused temporary dementia that persisted for several hours and loss of memory, and I was instructed by a nurse on-call to discontinue usage. Prior to that experience I had no idea how potentially dangerous and neurologically damaging these antibiotics can be, and in particular I am at very high risk of retinal detachment and should have been contraindicated on that reason alone. However, these are first-line antibiotics for many conditions, including relatively common conditions like traveler's diarrhea. Sadly, due to antibiotic resistance we are running out of "gentler" antibiotic options, and so we (as a society) use "rougher" first-lines now.