About 7 in 10 patients who go to a doctor seeking treatment for acute bronchitis winds up leaving their appointment with a prescription for an antibiotic, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. That's a problem, the study authors say, because the ideal prescription rate should be 0%. That's right, a big fat zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. More than 40 years of clinical trials have demonstrated that antibiotics do not help patients with acute bronchitis. On top of that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been emphasizing this fact for the last 15 years, as has the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set for nearly 10 years, the JAMA report says.
