Chicken soup for the sore throat often beats antibiotics

With several cost-effective tests available for diagnosing strep throat, overprescribing antibiotics for viral infections would seem to be a thing of the past. It's not.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Aug. 4, 2003.

Washington -- Patients with raw, scratchy throats can be formidable opponents for harried physicians who lack the time for lengthy explanation as to why an antibiotic might not be in their best interest, or in the best interest of society at large. Instead, physicians often end up prescribing antibiotics for adult patients with sore throats without testing to see if streptococcal bacteria are the cause.

Many believe such widespread antibiotic prescribing is helping to fuel the spread of antibiotic resistance, which is already posing a significant threat to the nation's health.

Sore throats are the sixth leading cause of adult visits to primary care physicians. Despite the fact that 90% of those sore throats are caused by viruses, the vast majority of these adults are sent home with a prescription for an antibiotic -- often a very powerful one.

"It's an interesting area because it is probably where we primary care doctors throw the most antibiotics for the least good cause," said Deborah Allen, MD, a family physician in Indianapolis and director of the Bowen Research Center at Indiana University School of Medicine.

"I have a lot of concerns about the overuse of antibiotics by physicians, especially in the cases of sore throats," said Mark D. Aronson, MD, a primary care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "The routine use of these drugs by physicians, particularly the use of the broad- spectrum antibiotics, can lead to drug resistance, which can be hazardous to patients if they get a very serious infection." Most physicians concur that patient request is likely to be the main reason for antibiotic overprescribing.