According to a European trial, a group of patients with common lower respiratory tract infections such as cough and bronchitis did not show any sign of significant cure with the antibiotic amoxicillin, which is commonly prescribed by the doctors, reports Medical Xpress.
The study included 2,061 adults with acute basic lower respiratory tract infection who got treatment from primary care in 12 European countries were divided in two groups. One group received treatment with amoxicillin and the other with placebo, thrice regularly for a period of one week. The symptoms were monitored by the doctors since the start of the study to validate the results. The effect was minimal with or without the antibiotic treatment, especially in older adults over the age of 60.
Two patients from the placebo group and one from the antibiotic group were hospitalized due the worsening symptoms. 28.7 percent of the patients who received antibiotics treatment reported more side effects such as nausea, rash, and diarrhea compared to the ones who were given placebo at 24 percent, according to Medical Xpress.
"Patients given amoxicillin don't recover much quicker or have significantly fewer symptoms," said Paul Little from the University of Southampton in the UK who led the research. "Using amoxicillin to treat respiratory infections in patients not suspected of having pneumonia is not likely to help and could be harmful. Overuse of antibiotics (which is dominated by primary care prescribing), particularly when they are ineffective, can lead to side effects (eg, diarrhoea, rash, vomiting) and the development of resistance."
According to Little placebo was more effective in treating patients with LRTI.
"Our results show that most people get better on their own. But, given that a small number of patients will benefit from antibiotics the challenge remains to identify these individuals," he said, according to Medical Xpress.
Philipp Schuetz from the Kantonsspital Aarau in Switzerland suggested based on the study results, according to Medical Xpress: "Little and colleagues have generated convincing data that should encourage physicians in primary care to refrain from antibiotic treatment in low-risk patients in whom pneumonia is not suspected. Whether this one size- fits-all approach can be further improved remains to be seen. Guidance from measurements of specific blood biomarkers of bacterial infection might help to identify the few individuals who will benefit from antibiotics despite the apparent absence of pneumonia and avoid the toxic effects and costs of those drugs and the development of resistance in other patients."
