Antibiotics doe not help lower respiratory tract infections

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Giving antibiotics to people with infections such as bronchitis makes little difference to the outcome, according to a study.
Many infections would clear up on their own, but doctors often prescribe an antibiotic because they think the patient expects it. They may also worry about the potential for complications if an infection is not treated with medication.

Doctors at the University of Southampton, England, now report a study where a group of over 800 patients with a lower respiratory infection such as bronchitis were either given antibiotics straight away, after a delay, or not at all. There was little difference in outcome whether or not antibiotics were used. The findings could do much to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, which tend to encourage the emergence of antibiotic resistance, a growing public health problem.

However, doctors should explain to their patients that, with bronchitis, a cough will persist - with or without antibiotics - for three weeks and maybe even a month. They also need to be alert to the minority of cases when antibiotics will be needed - if pneumonia develops. More research is needed into ways of predicting which patients are likely to fall into this category.

Source
Journal of the American Medical Association 22/29 June 2005 Volume 293 pages 3029-3035