Bronchitis
Long experience has taught me that in England nobody goes to the theatre unless he or she has bronchitis - James Agate
image by: Chronic Bronchitis Awareness
HWN Suggests
Despite Many Warnings, Antibiotics Are Still Overprescribed
We've known for years that antibiotics don't help in most cases of bronchitis or sore throat. And for decades, public health officials have tried to stop doctors from overprescribing antibiotics.
None of that seems to have made a difference, though: Antibiotics are still being prescribed when they don't help — and could hurt, a study says. Primary care and emergency room doctors are prescribing antibiotics for a sore throat about 60 percent of the time, according to national health surveys between 1997 and 2010.
"The right antibiotic prescribing rate for adults with sore throat is probably around 10 percent," says Dr. Jeffrey Linder, a primary care physician at Brigham and…
Resources
What to do for bronchitis
Although this upper respiratory infection may last longer than the common cold, it usually doesn't warrant antibiotics or medical treatment.
When a cough just won’t go away
But what do we do for patients who either do not respond to treatments for their common conditions, or for whom extensive evaluation rules out the less common causes of a chronic cough? Well, researchers are now describing a new family of breathing and cough conditions caused by nerve dysfunction.
Doctors know they shouldn't give antibiotics for bronchitis, do it anyway
About 5 percent of adults come down with a case of acute bronchitis each year; it's one of the most common reasons that patients turn up at their primary care doctors' office. The majority, new research shows, get the exact wrong treatment.
Acute bronchitis: Many patients expect to be treated with antibiotics and cough meds but this differs from guidelines
Cough is the most common symptom bringing patients to the primary care physician's office. The most common diagnosis in these patients is acute bronchitis, according to a recent review in the official journal of AFP, American Family Physician.
All I Want for Christmas is Bronchitis: A Scrooge and Healthcare
I'd been hedging my bets, waiting for the really nasty cold from 10 days ago to fade away. Two days off work, leaving me just three days in my sick-bank (after 17 months on the new job) combined with 17 hours of sleep per day and I thought I had it licked. But the cough persisted through day six and brought me to the real answer why Victorian homes had separate bedrooms for the husband and wife.
Antibiotics for colds, x-rays for bronchitis, internal exams with pap tests – the latest list of tests to question
Don’t order chest x-rays in patients with uncomplicated acute bronchitis (Routine chest x-rays don’t improve outcomes and may lead to false positives, further investigations and unnecessary radiation).
Bronchitis and Antibiotics
Don’t try to pressure your doctor into giving you antibiotics-it’s amazing how many clinicians experience this. It won’t make you any better, and will only make the antibiotic crisis-and it is a crisis-worse.
Bronchitis, bacterial complications and bigger perspectives
Sometimes, it takes small things, say microbes, to lend a person a greater understanding of life. Perspective can get adjusted when little changes impact a system.
Dead People Don’t Get Bronchitis — Thoughts on Zithromax
It was during my residency that the first indication of heart toxicity of antibiotics affected me personally. The threat was related to the use of the first of the non-drowsy antihistamines – Seldane – in combination with macrolide antibiotics such as erythromycin causing a potentially fatal heart arrhythmia. I remember the expressions of fear from other residents, as we had used this combination of medications often. Were we killing people when we treated their bronchitis?
This Man's Simple System Could Transform American Medicine
Developed by a trio of epidemiologists back in the ’80s, the NNT describes how many people would need to take a drug for one person to benefit. (The NNT for antibiotics in a case of acute bronchitis is effectively infinity, because the medicine is no better at curing the illness than a placebo.)
Despite Many Warnings, Antibiotics Are Still Overprescribed
We've known for years that antibiotics don't help in most cases of bronchitis or sore throat. And for decades, public health officials have tried to stop doctors from overprescribing antibiotics. None of that seems to have made a difference, though: Antibiotics are still being prescribed when they don't help — and could hurt, a study says.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Most people with acute bronchitis recover after a few days or weeks. Viral infections, such as the cold or flu, are usually the cause of acute bronchitis. Occasionally, acute bronchitis can be caused by a bacterial infection.
FamilyDoctor.org
Acute bronchitis is bronchitis that lasts a short time (several weeks or less), while chronic bronchitis is bronchitis that is long-lasting or recurring (and is usually caused by constant irritation of the bronchial tree, such as from smoking).
MedicineNet
Chronic bronchitis for research purposes is defined as a daily cough with sputum production for at least three months, two years in a row. Chronic bronchitis is a diagnosis usually made based on clinical findings of a long term persistent cough usually associated with tobacco abuse.
Patient
The main symptom is cough. You may also develop a high temperature (fever), headache, cold symptoms and aches and pains. Symptoms typically peak after 2-3 days and then gradually clear. However, it commonly takes 2-3 weeks for the cough to go completely after the other symptoms have gone.
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