Table 2.

Traditional terms related to antibacterial drugs that should not be used anymore

Traditional term	Reason why the traditional term should not be used anymore	Reference for use
Antimicrobial drugs	The term is too broad in the sense that it refers all types of “microbes”. In fact, in medicine, we are interested only in interfering with pathogenic microorganisms. Microorganisms belonging to the microbiome have beneficial effects and should not be adversely affected by antipathogenic drugs. Hence, the term antipathogenic drugs is more precise	(Sokol et al. 2007; Mulder et al. 2020)
Non-antimicrobial drugs	This is a classic negative definition of a drug class with no common underlying mechanism. An analogous term is “non-opioid analgesics” encompassing various mechanistically diverse drugs. The term “non-antimicrobial drugs” is defined far too imprecisely because every drug that originally has no antimicrobial effect is included in this class. However, since nowadays several so-called non-antimicrobial drugs are being repurposed for treatment of diseases caused by pathogens, the former term causes only confusion and should be dropped	(Pereira et al. 2018)
Broad-spectrum antibiotics	There is no generally accepted definition which antibacterial drug is a broad-spectrum antibacterial drug. In fact, the spectrum of pathogenic bacteria covered by a given antibacterial drug varies greatly in terms of time and geographical location. Due to uncritical use the “spectrum” of many antibacterial drugs has become narrower during the past years. The term “broad spectrum” also conveys the false impression to the physician that all or at least most pathogenic bacteria are coved by a broad-spectrum antibacterial drug. But in contrast, this misconception increases the probability that resistances emerge	(Gerber et al. 2017; Curtis et al. 2019; Wu et al. 2019; Joyner et al. 2020)
Narrow-spectrum antibiotics	In fact, as the result of the uncritical use of “broad-spectrum” antibacterial drugs, several of these drugs have become “narrow-spectrum” antibacterial drugs. Thus, like the term “broad-spectrum”, the term “narrow-spectrum” is not clearly defined. Dropping these two misleading terms honestly acknowledges the fact that the spectrum of antibacterial drugs changes temporarily and geographically	(Gerber et al. 2017; Curtis et al. 2019; Wu et al. 2019; Joyner et al. 2020)
Reserve antibiotics	Originally, the use of reserve antibacterial drugs was restricted to cases in which “broad-spectrum” and “narrow-spectrum” antibacterial drugs did not work anymore. However, the increasing resistance problem has resulted in an expansion of the use of “reserve” antibacterial drugs beyond the originally intended indications into traditional fields of “broad-spectrum” and “narrow-spectrum” antibacterial drugs. Hence, like for the other types of antibacterial drugs, the term “reserve antibacterial drugs” lacks a clear definition. Rather, a given antibacterial drug must be assigned to a specific pathogenic bacterial strain and a clearly defined clinical use	(Robertson et al. 2019)
Chemotherapeutics (chemotherapeutic agents)	Historic term used to designate antipathogenic drugs or antibacterial drugs. Sometimes, the term “chemotherapeutics” designates only synthetic antibacterial drugs, but often natural (e.g., fungus- or plant-derived) antibacterial drugs are included as well. To complicate matters, the term “chemotherapeutics” also includes classic cytostatic drugs used for the treatment of malignant tumors. In current language, the term “chemotherapy” is almost exclusively used for therapy of malignant tumors, but not for pathogen-caused diseases. The term “chemo” also has a negative connotation, signaling harm, danger and toxic effects. This should be avoided because several antipathogenic drugs are tolerated very well. Moreover, the term “chemotherapeutics” also alludes to the existence of allegedly “good” biotherapeutics, but the term “biotherapeutics” is uncommon in medicine. Instead, the term “biologicals” is broadly used, also suggesting via the prefix “bio” that these drugs have few if any adverse effects	(Nandi et al. 2020; Layeghi-Ghalehsoukhteh et al. 2020)
Leprostatics	The term “leprostatics” is used as an umbrella term to cover both leprostatic and “leprocidal drugs”. Because it is important to discriminate between the two classes of drugs, the incorrect umbrella term should be dropped. The term “anti-leprosy drugs” is a more appropriate umbrella term. The term “antimycobacterial drugs” also covers anti-tuberculosis drugs	(Caliskan et al. 2019)
Tuberculostatics	The term “tuberculostatics” is often used as an umbrella term to cover both tuberculostatic and tuberculocidal drugs. Isoniazide, pyrazinamide and rifampicin are prototypical tuberculocidal drugs, while ethambutol is a tuberculostatic drug. Because it is important to discriminate between the two classes of drugs, the incorrect umbrella term should be dropped. The term antimycobacterial drugs also covers anti-leprosy drugs	(Damasceno Junior et al. 2020)