This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (10)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Bacterial Infections  • Otolaryngology/ Head & Neck Surgery  • Middle/ External Ear Disorders  • Pulmonary Diseases  • Pulmonary Diseases, Other  • Drug Therapy  • Drug Therapy, Other  • Infectious Diseases  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Michael E. Pichichero, MD

JAMA. 2002;287:3133-3135.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The dynamics that influence antibiotic prescribing by office-based physicians in the United States are complex. Physicians have been receiving repeated messages to curtail antibiotic use from the biomedical literature, medical and public media, health insurance companies, key opinion leaders, alternative medicine advocates, and some patients. The message has been consistent, frequent, and loud, so it cannot have been missed. The crescendo of research during the past decade has established that (1) antibiotic overuse is a major public health problem¹; (2) approximately 50% of prescriptions for children written by community-based practitioners are unnecessary,² and (3) the single most important factor in the emergence of antibiotic resistance among respiratory bacterial pathogens is selection pressure from antimicrobial agents.³ Thus, as a public health policy, there seems little doubt that overzealous prescribing habits and inappropriate use of antibiotics should be reduced on a community-wide basis.

This all sounds good, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliation: University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Trends in Antimicrobial Prescribing Rates for Children and Adolescents
Linda F. McCaig, Richard E. Besser, and James M. Hughes
JAMA. 2002;287(23):3096-3102.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Changes in Antibiotic Prescribing for Children After a Community-wide Campaign
Joseph F. Perz, Allen S. Craig, Christopher S. Coffey, Daniel M. Jorgensen, Edward Mitchel, Stephanie Hall, William Schaffner, and Marie R. Griffin
JAMA. 2002;287(23):3103-3109.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Rational Use of Antimicrobials in Infants in Primary Care of Bahrain
Al Khaja et al.
J Trop Pediatr 2006;52:390-393.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Provider and Practice Characteristics Associated With Antibiotic Use in Children With Presumed Viral Respiratory Tract Infections
Gaur et al.
Pediatrics 2005;115:635-641.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Policy Versus Practice: Comparison of Prescribing Therapy and Durable Medical Equipment in Medical and Educational Settings
Sneed et al.
Pediatrics 2004;114:e612-e625.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Decrease in antibiotic use among children in the 1990s: not all antibiotics, not all children
Kozyrskyj et al.
CMAJ 2004;171:133-138.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Optimizing Antibacterial Therapy for Community-Acquired Respiratory Tract Infections in Children in an Era of Bacterial Resistance
Low et al.
CLIN PEDIATR 2004;43:135-151.
ABSTRACT  

Downward Trend in Prescribing Antibiotics for Children
JWatch Emergency Med. 2002;2002:7-7.
FULL TEXT  

Antibiotic Use Can Decrease
JWatch Infect. Diseases 2002;2002:9-9.
FULL TEXT