Use of penicillin and cephalosporins declined, but the use of other drugs increased, including carbapenems, which are usually given to patients showing high resistance to a number of other antibiotic medications.
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Overall, the researchers found that 55.1% of patients discharged received at least one antibiotic during their stay, with little change in that proportion between 2006 and 2012.
“How much of the increase in use is because doctors are treating harder-to-treat infections?”
The study included information from a database from 300 hospitals and 34 million patients. In that time, CARB launched the Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge, a $20 million competition to develop new diagnostic tests that healthcare providers can use to identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and distinguish between viral and bacterial infections. The increased use of broad-spectrum antibiotics could lead to the development of bacteria that is broadly-resistant to many class of antibiotics.
Srinivasan, who is associate director of health care associated infection prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that it is possible that doctors are prescribing more antibiotics in attempt to treat more hard infections that aren’t eliminated by older medications.
‘We don’t believe the reason broad spectrum antibiotics are overused is that physicians aren’t educated, ‘ he said. He added that doctors are aware they are prescribing too many antibiotics.
“We’ve known for decades that there are too many antibiotics being used”, Dr. Mehrotra said in a report at UPI.
“A better understanding of antibiotic use in U.S. hospitals can inform stewardship efforts by identifying targets for reducing inappropriate or unnecessary prescribing”, they write.
According to Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of nonprofit Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy, because of the random use of antibiotics, it is not as effective to treat ailments as it was in the past.
Mehrotra said that strategies can be adopted as there are ways to get doctors to prescribe fewer antibiotics. As an accompanying commentary explains, previous studies have shown that one-third of all antibiotics prescribed in outpatient settings are unnecessary, and within hospitals trends are similar.
Presently doctors have seen many multi-drug resistant infections, which can not be cured with medication.
For the study, the researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of adult and pediatric inpatient antibiotic use from the Truven Health MarketScan Hospital Drug Database (HDD) from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2012.
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Antibiotic use guidelines are already in place and don’t need to be changed, he said.
