Prescription For Nothing? 7 In 10 Doctors Give Patients Unnecessary Antibiotics For Asymptomatic Infections By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira for Natural Blaze
Antibiotics can be dangerous to the gut and increase the risk of creating antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. Despite the danger to “good” bacteria in the body, a new study finds about 70 percent of primary care physicians still believe in prescribing antibiotics for asymptomatic infections.
Since the early 2000s, the attitude towards antibiotics has shifted. Multiple medical organizations advise against prescribing antibiotics for people who test positive for a urinary tract infection (UTI) but show no symptoms such as burning or frequent urination. Medical guidance states antibiotics are not useful for asymptomatic infections and could cause more harm than good.
These side-effects include diarrhea, vomiting, rashes, and yeast infections. In rare cases, antibiotic-resistant strains such as C. difficile have an opportunity to expand in the colon and may cause death. Other cases involve bacterial infections that are deadly or hard to treat.
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“Our study suggests that primary care clinicians do not follow widely accepted recommendations against prescribing antibiotics for asymptomatic bacteriuria,” says Jonathan Baghdadi, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology & Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and lead author of the study, in a university release. “Some primary care clinicians may be unaware of these recommendations, but a culture of inappropriate prescribing is also likely a contributing factor.”
Certain doctors are more likely to give out prescriptions
The study looked at the survey answers of 551 primary care doctors from Texas, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Pacific Northwest. The survey presented doctors with a scenario where a patient came in for a bacterial infection but presented no UTI symptoms. They then had to provide their best approach for treatment.
Results show 71 percent of the doctors would give the hypothetical patient antibiotics — even if the treatment went against recommended medical guidelines. The researchers also found that family medicine doctors were more likely to overprescribe antibiotics than doctors in other specialties. Additionally, doctors in residency training or who lived in the Pacific Northwest were less likely to give antibiotics for asymptomatic infections.
