Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Pediatricians are giving out prescriptions to children at a rate of one in every five visits. The problem is that one-quarter of those prescriptions are unnecessary - and may even cause harm.
A new study from the University of Utah finds pediatricians turn too often to antibiotics when treating their young patients for sinus infections, flu and other respiratory conditions.
Those numbers translate into some 10 million prescriptions being given out that are entirely unnecessary. Part of the reason is that antibiotics are being prescribed despite questionable diagnoses, according to the study.
Lead author Dr. Adam Hersh told Reuters that "one reason overuse occurs is because the diagnosis is often unclear - - this is common with ear infections. The decision is made to prescribe an antibiotic even though the diagnosis isn't certain, just to be on the safe side."
The problem with this "safe side" approach is that about half of the prescriptions are for broad-spectrum antibiotics that kill basically anything and everything in their way - including good bacteria that help is function normally and remain healthy. Broad-spectrum antibiotics can actually hurt kids by making them susceptible to opportunistic infections when the good bacteria are killed off.
Further complicating matters is the fact that the more antibiotics prescribed, the greater the likelihood that a strain will develop resistance, requiring stronger and more broad antibiotics, leading to a vicious cycle.
Hersh said that one way to avoid these problems is to simply wait a little bit.
"If the diagnosis is still a little unclear, ask if it would be safe to wait a day or two with close follow up rather than starting the antibiotic right away."
The study used data from a huge sample of 65,000 visits to pediatricians over two years from 2006 to 2008. The study was published in the journal "Pediatrics."
Email: [dnewlin@ksl.com](<mailto: dnewlin@ksl.com>)
