Drug repositioning, presented as a faster way to achieve a new pharmacological therapy with lower expenses, is an increasingly explored strategy when considering the investigation of new antibacterial compounds. Considering this scenario present in the field of science, this study aims to provide a state of the art on pharmacological repositioning, envisioning the antibacterial activity of non-antibiotic drugs. For this, the method of narrative literature review was adopted, which was supported by the use of the PICo strategy to formulate the study question. The investigation took place during January and February 2022 in electronic databases intended for the deposition of scientific articles, such as Medline, PubMed, VHL, MDPI. The period of publication of the works was not defined as a search criterion. The inclusion was due to scientific studies published in Portuguese, English and Spanish, excluding works that in their textual body did not answer the guiding question of this investigation. The analyzed results showed that several classes of drugs have both in vitro and in vivo antibiotic activity, such as the antihypertensive drug amlodipine, psychomodulators such as fluoxetine and thioridazine, and anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen. However, not all of them have an elucidated hypothesis of the reason for such an effect. Some of the mechanisms pointed out by the consulted authors were damage to the cell wall, modification of the permeability of porin proteins, inhibition of sliding hairpins that act with DNA polymerase. In addition to the antimicrobial response of non-antibiotic drugs, interesting results were also identified on the synergistic effect, when combined with some standard treatment in infectious combat. Therefore, in conclusion, the antibacterial potential of pharmacological redirection is promising, with an emphasis on anti-inflammatory, psychotropic and cardiovascular intervention drugs. However, it was still revealed the need to deepen investigations on the mechanisms of action of the compounds already investigated against bacterial strains, suggesting that research of phases II and III be developed, as well as investigations of other pharmacological classes little explored.