The concern is overuse could lead to antibiotic resistance.
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But apart from simply not helping you feel better, prescribing antibiotics when they’re not necessary is contributing to a massive global problem.
Almost one-third of the antibiotics prescribed in the United States aren’t appropriate for the conditions being treated, a new federal government study shows.
About 262 million outpatient antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed in 2011 in the United States, but until now no one knew how many of those prescriptions were inappropriate, she said.
“Setting a national target to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use in outpatient settings is a critical first step to improve antibiotic use and protect patients”, said Lauri Hicks, director of the CDC’s Office of Antibiotic Stewardship.
The investigators also included bacterial infections that can clear up on their own without the help of antibiotics, such as sinus and ear infections. The diagnosis associated with the most antibiotic prescriptions per 1,000 population was sinusitis (56 prescriptions, 95% CI: 48-64). To get the figure, researchers compared the number of prescriptions handed out for antibiotics with the number of prescriptions that national guidelines said should have been handed out.
Two strategies are needed to curb antibiotic overuse, added the editorial by Pranita Tamma and Sara Cosgrove of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
And people wipe out “good” germs in their digestive tracts and on their bodies every time they use antibiotics.
The study of 184,032 visits, titled Prevalence of Antibiotic Prescriptions Among US Ambulatory Care Visits, 2010-2011 and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, comes as a White House panel of experts convened to work on the issue push doctors to halve the prescribing of antibiotics in such settings by 2020. Katherine Fleming-Dutra, a CDC medical epidemiologist and report’s lead author said, “Clinicians are concerned about patient satisfaction and the patient demand for antibiotics”. “It is important for all health professionals in all regions seeing patients of all ages to only prescribe antibiotics when they are needed, and if needed, select the right antibiotic at the right dose for the right duration”, Dr. Fleming-Dutra advised. “They think that a patient wants antibiotics, and they want the patient to be satisfied with their care, sometimes leading them to prescribe when they shouldn’t”. 4, Doctors wrote prescriptions to appease the patient or parents.
To restrict antibiotic use, Cosgrove pointed to a very simple solution evaluated by a recent study – a poster placed in doctors’ waiting rooms indicating a commitment to avoiding antibiotic overuse. The CDC has warned that “nightmare bacteria” are increasingly resistant to even the strongest antibiotics, posing a growing threat to hospitals and nursing homes nationwide.
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For more on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
