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Common Antibiotic Not Helpful for Cough and Respiratory Infection
When I was growing up in the 1980s and ’90s with two younger brothers, the antibiotic amoxicillin was a frequent guest in our house. Strep throat, sinus infections, sore throats, coughs; we all remember that thick, pink, bubble gum-flavored liquid perhaps a little too well. But this popular drug, like many antibiotics, is overprescribed—often given for illnesses that it will not help, such as viral infections. A new study shows that it is indeed no more helpful than a placebo in treating patients with a non-pneumonia lower respiratory tract infection, such as a nagging cough.
The research complements a paper published in February in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, that found that amoxicillin (know by names such as Amoxil, Alphamox, Dispermox, Trimox and others) is not effective in treating sinus infections when tested against a placebo.
For the new study, published online December 18 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers recruited 2,061 patients 18 years and older (across a dozen European countries) who went to their doctor for a lower-respiratory infection that was not suspected to be pneumonia and had a cough lasting fewer than four weeks. Half of the hackers were randomly assigned to receive amoxicillin and the other half received a placebo. Both groups were instructed to take their medication three times a day for seven days; and neither the patients nor clinicians knew which treatment was which.
Participating patients received follow-up phone interviews and completed daily diary entries for symptoms (detailing, for example, cough, phlegm, runny nose, headaches, feeling unwell, etc.) as well as for side effects (including diarrhea, rashes, vomiting, etc.) for up to four weeks.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/obse…syn_HuffPo
2012-12-20 12:55:40
Source: http://yeoldefalseflag.com/thread-common-antibiotic-not-helpful-for-cough-and-respiratory-infection
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