Antibiotic prescribing for self limiting respiratory tract infections in primary care: summary of NICE guidance

doi:10.1136/bmj.a437

Published 23 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a437
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a437

Practice

Guidelines

Antibiotic prescribing for self limiting respiratory tract infections in primary care: summary of NICE guidance

Toni Tan, technical analyst¹, Paul Little, professor of primary care research and general practitioner², Tim Stokes, associate director¹, on behalf of the Guideline Development Group

¹ National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Manchester M1 4BD, ² School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ

Correspondence to: P Little p.little@soton.ac.uk

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

Antibiotics probably provide little benefit for a large proportionof respiratory tract infections that present in primary care.Respiratory tract infections are largely self limiting, andcomplications are likely to be rare if antibiotics are withheld.However, respiratory tract infections account for 60% of allantibiotic prescribing in primary care,¹ and the prescribingpatterns for antibiotics vary widely among general practices,without evidence of significant benefit among higher prescribers.Three different management strategies for antibiotics can beused for patients with respiratory tract infection who presentin primary care: no antibiotic prescribing; delayed (or deferred)prescribing, in which a prescription is written for use at alater date if symptoms worsen or do not start to settle in theexpected timescale; and immediate prescribing. This articlesummarises the most recent recommendations from the NationalInstitute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on antibioticprescribing for self limiting respiratory tract infections . . . [Full text of this article]

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Gulliford, M., Latinovic, R., Charlton, J., Little, P., van Staa, T., Ashworth, M. (2009). Selective decrease in consultations and antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in UK primary care up to 2006. J Public Health (Oxf) 31: 512-520 [Abstract] [Full text]
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