Antibiotic treatment no Good for Bronchitis

Prescribing antibiotics - a practice commonly followed by primary care doctors to treat patients with acute bronchitis, shows no evidence of improvement in a vast majority of patients, researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University say.

Research study and clinical trials taken up to gauge the benefit derived from prescribing antibiotics for short-term bronchitis, showed no evidence in support of the treatment.

Acute Bronchitis is a short lived (usually lasts 10 days) inflammation of the main airways of the respiratory system. It affects the air passages that extend from the windpipe into the lungs and is typically marked by common symptoms like cough, wheezing, fever, and soreness in the chest.

Both seasonal and contagious in nature, the disorder affects approximately 5 percent of adults annually. Higher incidence is observed during the change of seasons like, winter and fall than in the summer and spring.

Reported to be the ninth most common illness among outpatients, bronchitis is usually caused by a viral infection. The most common viruses that cause bronchitis are influenza A and B.

However, bacteria, smoking or the inhalation of chemical pollutants or dust may also cause bronchitis. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is the commonest bacterium that causes acute bronchitis.

According to Dr. Richard Wenzel, chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine, states at about 70 to 80 percent of the patients with acute bronchitis are prescribed antibiotics for treatment lasting 5-10 days.

However according to researchers, antimicrobial agents are not recommended in most cases of acute bronchitis. Through clinical trials researchers concluded that though, antibiotics reduce the duration of symptoms but just modestly.

A meta-analysis of eight trials conducted on patients with acute bronchitis reported that symptoms reduced by a fraction of a day with the use of antibiotics like, erythromycin, doxycycline, or trimethoprim–sulfamethoxazole.

Researchers argued that the side effects of such antibiotic drugs were much greater than the benefit derived from the antibiotic administration. Diarrhea, gastric upset, rash, headaches and muscle aches are just a few side effects that antibiotics may cause.

Moreover, unnecessary dosage of antibiotics also increases the chances of bacteria becoming resistant.

Therefore, primary care doctors and patients should instead save the medications for times when the drugs are really needed, recommend researchers.