The standing argument that failing to complete a course of antibiotics could fuel the rise of antibiotic resistance has little evidence, a group of United Kingdom researchers argue in a new paper.
But other doctors urge caution, and say they aren’t ready to change standard advice around taking antibiotics.
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“We’re not at all saying that patients should stop when they feel like it or that patients should ignore their doctor’s advice,” Tim Peto, professor of medicine at the University of Oxford and a co-author of the article.
But Peto believes that ending a course of antibiotics to prevent resistance is a counter-intuitive view and that there is “not enough knowledge” for doctors to know how long antibiotics should be prescribed for.
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But the group’s stance has received mixed responses from the medical community.
“It’s important that we take new evidence around how to curb this on board, but we cannot advocate widespread behavior change on the results of just one study,” said Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, the chairwoman [of the UK] Royal College of General Practitioners….
[Read the full study here]
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