Concerns about the over-prescribing of antibiotics have always been voiced, but the problem still persists, according to a CDC study in JAMA Internal Medicine.
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When the United Nations General Assembly meets in NY this week, on the agenda will be the overuse of antibiotics and the rapid spread of bacteria resistant to those lifesaving drugs. “How much of the increase in use is because doctors are treating harder-to-treat infections?”
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.
The study, published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed discharge records from more than 34 million patients at more than 300 USA hospitals between 2006 and 2012, looking specifically at antibiotic doses administered to patients during their stay.
In recent years, the use of antibiotic among patients in USA hospitals in general has not changed at all, and the use of a few antibiotics, particularly broad spectrum agents, however, has significantly increased. Though overall antibiotic use stayed the same during the six-year study, the team found that use of third-and-fourth generation cephalosporins, macrolides, glycopeptides, carbapenems, and tetracyclines rose by a large margin. However, the use of some classes of antibiotics has significantly increase.
“Antibiotic use remains common, and use of the most powerful antibiotics is rising”, said lead researcher James Baggs, a CDC epidemiologist, reported UPI. Usage of these antibiotics was significantly greater in critical care locations.
Additionally, the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which is considered to be a nuke against wide variety of bacteria, has increased between 2006 and 2012. But doctors still give several patients antibiotics they do not necessarily need and even know that they are prescribing too many antibiotics, he continued.
These findings could help inform national efforts to improve antibiotic use by suggesting key targets for improvement interventions.
In an accompanying editorial, Ateev Mehrotra, M.D., and Jeffery Linder, M.D., both of Harvard Medical School, offer another explanation: “The overuse of antibiotics is not a knowledge problem or a diagnostic problem; it is largely a psychological problem”, they write. Patients can also do their part by asking their doctor why they are prescribed antibiotics and if its use is really necessary.
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Notably, antibiotics and antibiotic resistant diseases are a global problem presently, and a topic which will be discussed this week at the United Nations General Assembly. So instead of focusing on the public health consequences of antibiotic misuse, doctors could focus on side effects, like rashes, diarrhea, and Clostridium difficile infections.
