Blood test may reduce antibiotics use

CARDIFF , Wales, May 22 (UPI) -- A blood test and improved communications could help cut the growing number of inappropriate prescriptions of antibiotics, researchers in Wales suggest.

The clinical trial, published in the British Medical Journal, found those physicians in primary care who underwent training in advanced communications skills and those who made use of a blood test prescribed fewer antibiotics for lower respiratory tract infections -- which generally do not respond to antibiotics.

Study leader Christopher Butler of Cardiff University said that as the problem of bacteria resistance to antibiotic treatment grows, researchers from around the world are seeking ways to improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing.

"Conditions like acute bronchitis account for some 80 percent of all lower respiratory tract infections and despite evidence of little or no benefit from antibiotics, the majority of these patients are still prescribed antibiotics," Butler said in a statement.

"We know that with the many pressures facing doctors, including worry about leaving pneumonia untreated, they often give patients 'the benefit of the doubt' and prescribe antibiotics."

The trial randomized 20 general practices in the Netherlands, where 40 primary care physicians managed 431 patients with lower respiratory tract infection.

The study found 54 percent of doctors practicing according to usual care prescribed antibiotics, while 27 percent trained in the advanced communication and 31 percent who used the blood test methods prescribed antibiotics.