In 1989, Timothy Sullivan had an ear infection, and he was urged to take antibiotics. After popping a giant tablet of amoxicillin one summer afternoon, he jumped up to celebrate “after confirming that [he] had not asphyxiated and died.” Unfortunately, his celebration ended rather quickly when he realized that he still had 41 tablets of amoxicillin left to take. His doctor told him to take all of these tablets, even if his ear infection was already resolved — he must finish the course.
While some doctors still urge patients to finish lengthy antibiotic treatments for simple infections, the evidence for this recommendation has largely been debunked.
Actually, the evidence never really existed. Traditional antibiotic prescriptions, often written for seven, 10 or 14 days weren’t based on science—they might well have come instead from associations with familiar numbers, such as the number of days in a week or toes on our feet. But for many infections, recent research has shown that shorter antibiotic durations are just as effective, often with fewer harmful side effects.
More details about this over at Scientific American.
(Image Credit: qimono/ Pixabay)
I'd always assumed the rationale wasn't about ill effects on the patient, so much as wanting to head off the development of bacterial resistance -- wanting to be thorough in killing off bacterial that might have only been weakened, and even if they didn't induce a relapse, might multiply and spread to give a worse infection to the next person.
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to prevent relapse
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