Antibiotics Are Useless In Treating Most Sinus Infections 377
An anonymous reader writes "While doctors routinely prescribe antibiotics to treat sinus infections, researchers on Tuesday revealed that amoxicillin, the most commonly prescribed medication for nasal cavity inflammation and sinuses, was just as effective as a dummy pill. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, found that there was no significant difference in symptoms between patients taking amoxicillin to those who took the placebo three days after starting the pills were administered."
Re:What does this sentence mean? (Score:5, Informative)
Each group started on their pills and they checked for effect 3 days later.
Here's a link to the actual study at JAMA's site (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Here's a link to the actual study at JAMA's sit (Score:5, Informative)
A) Someone's got a sense of humor: "The primary outcome was measured using the modified Sinonasal Outcome Test-16 (SNOT-16), a validated and responsive measure."
B) They did no testing whatsoever to ensure the sinus infections _were_ bacterial - but they apparently usually are, and are usually diagnosed as such symptomatically instead of by culture (in other words, they followed normal practices in deciding who to give antibiotics to).
C) They did no testing to see if resistant bacteria could be isolated from any patients.
Putting B and C together...clearly the medical community is overprescribing antibiotics, but there may be some question of whether it's resistant bacterial infections or poor diagnosis of bacterial vs. viral infections.
Re:slashdot title also written by a moron (Score:5, Informative)
My thought exactly. Clindamycin and Biaxin are especially good at treating sinus infections. Why they used a drug like amoxicillin is beyond me...
Re:my favorite sinus remedy: simple, cheap (Score:2, Informative)
Except they don't really work for infections. By the time you're feeling symptoms of a sinus infection, it's already in your bloodstream, you can't just wash it away by pouring water up your nose. Now, it's not to say they're worthless, especially if you use them on a regular basis. The reason sinus infections are so common is that the mucus in your nose provides an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. Since a colony can grow in the mucus in peace (there are no white blood cells in snot), it can get quite strong before it enters the bloodstream, at which point it's too late for your body to easily and quickly fight off. Nasal irrigation can also help with recurrence, since it's possible for a bacterial colony to take hold in your nose, and essentially keep reintroducing itself back into the bloodstream as your body fights it off. What nasal irrigation can't do though is actually fight off an infection. The congestion and runny nose associated with a sinus infection are symptoms, not the infection itself, which is in your bloodstream, and requires either natural antibodies or antibiotics to cure.
Re:Biofilms (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Biofilms (Score:5, Informative)
Re:my favorite sinus remedy: simple, cheap (Score:2, Informative)
Except that improperly-done nasal irrigation can kill. There were a couple people in Louisiana who used tap water to irrigate their sinuses, but the water was infected with an amoeba that killed them.
Ought to use distilled water for that at the least.
Re:Lets make Antibiotics obsolete (Score:2, Informative)
We've known for years that Doctors have over prescribed Antibiotics for many ailments,
NO WE DO NOT KNOW THAT, please shut the fuck up and keep your popular culture non science views to your self, asshole.,
I guess the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health are now qualifying as non-science, huh
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/11.10/11-sore.html [harvard.edu]
Or how about this study, in which 44% of doctors "admitted sometimes prescribing antibiotics to patients who may not need them"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18196886 [nih.gov]
Re:Obvious... (Score:4, Informative)
You are both right. Most sinus infections are viral, and many patients with viral sinus infections demand that the doctor "do something," which generally means they want antibiotics. Many times they still demand antibiotics even though the doctor explains that antibiotics will not work for their *viral* infection. Thus anybody with sinusitis, be it viral or bacterial, is somebody who "might" be prescribed antibiotics.
Re:What does this sentence mean? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:slashdot title also written by a moron (Score:4, Informative)
If I may offer you a small advice, as an ENT doctor, use nasal irrigation [wikipedia.org]. Many studies have showed that it is as important as antibiotics in the treatment of sinusitis.
Good luck!
Re:slashdot title also written by a moron (Score:4, Informative)
Hmm, I don't know about that, as I've been prescribed Penicillin V within the last 5 years. You know, stuff from the dawn of antibiotics. (I've also had more modern antibiotics as well, so it's not a lack of them being available).
However, I live in a country that puts health before profits, so that could be related.
On the other hand, I suppose some of the early-gen antibiotics are being used less these days simply because in a lot of cases, they don't work very well. Doctor doesn't want you coming back in a week for something newer because the infection was penicillin resistant, or so. Which of course makes bacteria more exposed to new drugs, which makes them less effective... ad nauseam.