How much and how often should you use the product?
Doctors should only prescribe clindamycin to people who are allergic to penicillin or if they suspect that a different antibiotic would be inappropriate. This is because Clindamycin can cause colitis, which is inflammation of the colon’s inner lining.
Take the capsule with a full glass of water to keep it from irritating your throat.
Clindamycin capsules may irritate the esophagus. To prevent this from happening, take clindamycin capsules with a full glass of water.
The dosages of clindamycin capsules for adults are:
- For serious infections, 150–300 mg every 6 hours
- For more severe infections, 300–450 mg every 6 hours
The dosages for children who can swallow capsules are:
- For serious infections, 8–16 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) per day, divided into three or four equal doses
- For more severe infections, 16–20 mg/kg per day, divided into three or four equal doses
Use this medicine for the full prescribed length of time. Your symptoms may improve before the infection is completely cleared. If this happens, keep taking the medicine as prescribed. Skipping doses may also increase your risk of further infection that is resistant to antibiotics. Clindamycin will not treat a viral infection such as the flu or a common cold.
Mechanism of Action:
Clindamycin inhibits bacterial protein synthesis by binding to 23S RNA of the 50S subunit of the bacterial ribosome. It impedes both the assembly of the ribosome and the translation process. The molecular mechanism through which this occurs is thought to be due to clindamycin’s three-dimensional structure, which closely resembles the 3′-ends of L-Pro-Met-tRNA and deacylated-tRNA during the peptide elongation cycle – in acting as a structural analog of these tRNA molecules, clindamycin impairs peptide chain initiation and may stimulate dissociation of peptidyl-tRNA from bacterial ribosomes.
The mechanism through which topical clindamycin treats acne vulgaris is unclear, but may be related to its activity against Propionibacterium acnes, a bacteria that has been associated with acne.