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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Going to the doctor for a sinus infection? Then most likely you'll come away with a prescription for an antibiotic. Unfortunately, it probably won't do you much good.
A new study out of the University of Nebraska shows doctors prescribe antibiotics for more than 80 percent of acute sinus infections and nearly 70 percent of chronic sinus infections, despite medical evidence suggesting the vast majority of these infections are not bacterial in nature, and thus won't respond to antibiotics.
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The authors explain acute sinus infections generally are caused by infections, but most of them are viral. Viruses aren't treated well with antibiotics. Chronic sinus infections are usually due to allergies, facial features and hormonal changes. Because they aren't caused by infections, antibiotics can't treatment them either.
The study also suggests doctors are failing when it comes the prescription of other drugs used to treat the condition, over-prescribing inhaled steroids for acute sinus infections, for example, when medical evidence suggests they are not useful for acute infections. The only sinus infection drugs that appear to be prescribed correctly are antihistamines.
Why do doctors prescribe these medications when studies show they aren't useful? These researchers note physicians may sometimes be giving the drugs to treat another condition the patient is suffering from at the same time as the sinus infection, but most likely they are giving them because they've seen sinus infections clear up in the past after patients took them. What's really happening, though, is the infections just resolved on their own.
The research is based on analysis of data from two large health surveys conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, 2007;133:260-265
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