Antibiotics have 'little effect' on cough and phlegm
Coloured phlegm and a bad
cough is not necessarily a good indicator for antibiotic treatment
Taking
antibiotics for a bad cough which produces green or yellow phlegm is of little
benefit, says Cardiff University research.
A
study of over 3,000 adults from across Europe found that patients producing
coloured phlegm are more likely to be prescribed antibiotics by their GP.
Yet
the antibiotic treatment did not appear to speed up their recovery.
The
study appears in the European Respiratory Journal.
An
acute cough or a lower respiratory tract infection is a very common reason for
people going to see their GP in the UK, says the study.
Coughing
up phlegm coloured green or yellow is also one of the most common reasons for
GPs prescribing antibiotics, because they believe it is more likely to indicate
a bacterial cause.
The
team from the School of Medicine at Cardiff University collected data from 13
European countries for their research, asking patients and doctors to record
symptoms and treatments for the condition.
The
researchers found that patients who produced green or yellow phlegm were
prescribed antibiotics "considerably more often" then those with
clear or white phlegm.
They
also found that, after seven days, the biggest difference between those who
were and were not treated with antibiotics was less than one half of a
percentage point on a symptom severity scale.
Side effects
Professor
Chris Butler, who led the study, said: "Our findings resonate with
findings from randomised trials where benefit from antibiotic treatment in
those producing discoloured phlegm has been found to be marginal at best or
non-existent."
"Our
findings add weight to the message that acute cough in otherwise well adults is
a self-limiting condition and antibiotic treatment does not speed recovery to
any meaningful extent.
"In
fact, antibiotic prescribing in this situation simply unnecessarily exposes
people to side effects from antibiotics, undermines future self care, and
drives up antibiotic resistance," Professor Butler said.
The
study also found that GPs from Scandinavia are good at targeting their
prescribing of antibiotics while The Netherlands use half as many antibiotics
than the UK.
"The
more we use them, the less likely they are to work."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
No comments :
Post a Comment