Expensive Antibiotics Are Being Over Prescribed!
Feb 9, 2009 by Mike
Researchers say that many GPs are writing prescriptions for the latest, most expensive antibiotics and ignoring many cheaper and better options!
The British Pharmaceutical Conference recently heard that one in eight prescriptions written by GPs were for the latest drugs which is something that very often breached suggested guidelines.
Experts say that these drugs should only be used as a "last line of defence" and only then in order to reduce the risk of bacterial resistance.
Doctors in hospitals and GP surgeries are now under greater pressure to curb the use of antibiotics as overuse can lead to the development of "superbugs" which are resistant to all but a very few modern drugs.
In recent years, more powerful antibiotics have been developed to counter this threat but the guidelines say that they should be used in moderation and only in certain conditions or when earlier antibiotics had failed.
Given that four out of five prescriptions for antibiotics are written by GPs, a team from Liverpool's 'John Moores University' wanted to verify what the prescriptions were being used for and how often they were being prescribed.
They looked at computer records and found that 15% of all antibiotic prescriptions were for the more modern and more expensive drugs and that guidelines designed to restrict their use were not being followed.
Dr Jim Kennedy, the Royal College of GPs Head of Prescribing, said, "The risks associated with this behaviour are that the drug may be unnecessary or inappropriate, increasing the potential of resistance and increasing costs to the primary care trust", and added that a more detailed picture of prescribing would be needed to identify a problem.
"We don't know if this is a couple of rogue prescribers or whether there were good reasons why the guidelines weren't being followed. The problem with guidelines is that none of them perfectly fits every situation".
He said that the overall downward trend in the prescribing of antibiotics in recent years might mean that the use of stronger and more modern antibiotics would appear to have increased even though GPs were in fact using them appropriately in the treatment of more serious bacterial infections.
A different study presented to the conference in Manchester highlighted the difficulties faced by those trying to curb the overuse of antibiotics and this time within hospitals.
The study suggests that doctors are being overcautious about the risk of hospital acquired infections and that many patients that undergo surgery are simply given a handful of antibiotics to reduce their chances of developing an infection.
Sunderland University researchers found that in 2005, that more than half of patients were getting too many antibiotics and that one woman patient was reportedly given eighty one doses of an antibiotic rather than the three to five that were required.
Many doctors are now being advised to add a date to their prescriptions after which the prescription must not be refilled!