Easy Does It with Antibiotics
Antibiotics are miraculous medicines responsible for saving countless lives, but their overuse comes with a terrible price: a Darwinian selection for highly resistant ?superbugs? that could eventually become nearly unstoppable. So it behooves physicians to use antibiotics only when necessary, and for the shortest effective duration.
In fact, researchers in the Netherlands seem to have discovered that with at least one antibiotic, less is more ? or just as good. As reported in the June 9, 2006, British Medical Journal, 119 patients who substantially improved after three days? treatment with intravenous amoxicillin were then put on oral amoxicillin for varying lengths of time. In groups treated for three days and then switched to placebo, the success rate at day 10 was 93% - exactly the same as for the group that received the medication all ten days.
This was just one small clinical trial, and it is probably premature to change treatment protocols based on this alone. But it definitely points to the need for more studies focused on treatment efficacy. Ideally, patients would be carefully monitored and given the absolute minimum course of treatment necessary to regain their health. In my view, this philosophy should encompass not just antibiotic use, but the use of any medication with known side effects or repercussions for public health.
http://www.drweil.com/u/Page/Archive244/
