Prescribing antibiotics for sore throats

BMJ 1999;318:1138 ( 24 April )

Letters

Prescribing antibiotics for sore throats

Rapid tests are invaluable tools

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ I found Butler et al's article interesting.¹ In Norway problems with resistant bacteria are few and have been stablefor 10 years. Important reasons for this may be the low totalprescriptions for antibiotics and the high proportion of penicillinV prescribed. Prescriptions for antibiotics have decreased by10% since 1993. One of the reasons for this may be the use ofrapid tests in generalpractice.

A rapid test for detection of group A streptococci (sensitivity and specificity >90%) provides results within 5 minutes. Asgroup A streptococci are the only cause of sore throat that shouldbe treated with penicillin V,² this can potentially reduceprescriptions. As test results are known quickly, the patientcan be told why penicillin V would or would not beprescribed.

In a recent study we showed that a rapid test for C reactive protein performed in general practice and giving results within10 minutes . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Understanding the culture of prescribing: qualitative study of general practitioners' and patients' perceptions of antibiotics for sore throats: Christopher C Butler, Stephen Rollnick, Roisin Pill, Frances Maggs-Rapport, and Nigel Stott
BMJ 1998 317: 637-642. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]