When you have a sinus infection, the first thing you want is relief from your pain. You want your doctor to prescribe an antibiotic to speed that process. And the last thing you want is to be told to just wait it out.
But a study released Tuesday adds to the growing body of science suggesting that with some infections, including those of the sinuses, antibiotics aren’t the best course of treatment and waiting it out may indeed be the best approach after all.
Overuse of antibiotics is considered a growing public-health problem as disease-causing bacteria continue to develop resistance to the drugs we rely on to kill them. According to the new study, one in five prescriptions for antibiotics in the U.S. is for a sinus infection.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that in their study of 166 adults with sinus infections, those who were given the antibiotic amoxicillin didn’t feel better any faster than those who received a placebo. People in both groups experienced about the same amount of relief after three days.
The Washington Post
