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RE: Piqued Lite - 7/28/2017 - Antibiotic Courses May Be Too Long And More Research Is Needed To Decide On New Course Length - The BMJ
Use as prescribed means take the full prescribed course. Now whether or not the length of a course should be changed is up to the data, science and physicians. What people should not do is decide that length of the course on their own. I disagree with this BMC article. Or at least your interpretation (I haven't read the article to draw my own).
People shouldn't stop taking their prescriptions "when they feel better" there is no evidence to support that being even remotely acceptable.
I was fairly surprised as well - is The BMJ a legit scientific journal? I may be incorrect - but if it is not then i will blank out the post.
If it is legit, then I would be very interested in your interpretation of the study
BMJ is a fine journal. I'll have to look at the study.
Edit: you summarized their opinions appropriately (this is an opinion article). I disagree that "stop when you feel better is an appropriate message." Infections can recur if you stop an antibiotic too soon, and "when you feel better" gives people too much wiggle room in that regard.
Their desire to minimize unnecessary medication is good, and supported by data, and as such they should be advocating more study as to appropriate dosing of antibiotics to allow physicians to make more targeted prescriptions. Allowing for significantly shorter durations of exposure. Rather than telling people, well you decide when your cured. It's just difficult to know if the infection is beaten back enough...
Hi believe your interpretation is correct - and looking at the phrasing of the fonal sentence, i think i was trying to imply the answer is not obvious rather than that that "us until you feel better" was the final conclusion of the study.
I have removed the final sentence, and added a large edit to the front end explaining clearly the actual conclusions.
I think i misinterpreted the conclusion - edits forthcoming