One in three swallowed antibiotics in the Saarland

Doctors prescribe Saarländer most antibiotics

26/09/2012

Antibiotics are often the drug of choice for a fever, cold or tonsillitis. Despite warnings of a steadily growing number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the medical all-purpose weapon is particularly popular with family doctors. However, according to the current Atlas of Antibiotics, there are significant regional differences. For example, most antibiotics are prescribed in the state of Saarland. Scientists are still researching the causes of the unequal distribution of regulations.

Antibiotics do not help with viral diseases
Often, patients urge their doctor to prescribe an antibiotic. Because the remedy is commonly considered „Miracle Weapon“ against stubborn colds, bladder infections and much more. Frequently, however, colds are not bacterial but viral infections in which antibiotics are ineffective because viruses are the cause of the disease. Even doctors assume that there are mild antibiotics, as a recent survey of medical professionals at a specialist congress revealed.

Nevertheless, antibiotics are among the most prescribed drugs in Germany. Experts have warned for some time before the inappropriate use of penicillin & Co. Because more and more bacteria with antibiotic resistance occur in which the active ingredients have become useless.

The Zentralinstitut für die Kassenärztliche Versorgung (ZI) has examined how often antibiotics are prescribed by physicians and thereby established a regional connection. In 2010, about 22 million people received a prescription for the remedy. Most antibiotics were prescribed on an outpatient basis in the oldest group of patients (56% of those over 90) and the youngest (39% to 15 years). Conspicuous result of the analysis: Most antibiotics are issued by primary care physicians with nearly 53 percent of antibiotic prescriptions. Even internists who work in primary care, as well as children and ENT doctors prescribe many antibiotics, but - with less than ten percent of the prescriptions - much less than prescribe the presumed all-purpose weapon family doctors.

The evaluation was carried out with the aid of nationwide drug prescription data. According to the central institute for health insurance, the entire database was evaluated for a patient-related study for the first time. All patients who received at least one antibiotic prescription in 2010 were considered.

Regional abnormalities in antibiotic care
The study results show numerous abnormalities. In western Germany, for example, more doctors issued a prescription for an antibiotic drug than in the East. Especially many antibiotics were administered in the small area Saarland. More Than One in Three Saarlanders (37 percent) swallowed at least one pack of antibiotics in 2010. Rhineland-Palatinate and the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe are already in second place with 35 percent each.

Physicians in the eastern German states, however, were much more restrained. The states of Brandenburg (25 percent) and Saxony (28 percent) placed the worst in the award of antibiotics in the federal territory, although here, too, according to scientists, the ratio is still too high.

Up to 50 percent of children are on antibiotics
A second conspicuousness surprised the researchers. Because the regional differences changed again when it came to the antibiotic prescriptions in children. In the group of patients under the age of 15 Saarland was once again in the lead, just as frequently pediatricians prescribed antibiotics to children in Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony-Anhalt. 50 percent of the young patients were treated with an antibiotic drug on an outpatient basis.

It remains unclear how these regional differences come about. "We suspect that the expectations of the patients and the attitude of the physicians to antibiotic therapy are essential influencing factors," says Dominik von Stillfried, Managing Director of the ZI. The Institute now wants to conduct further research to analyze the regional differences. For this purpose, the data on the frequency of the diagnoses should now also be included and evaluated.

One study found that doctors often prescribe unnecessary antibiotics. even simple infections can no longer be treated in the future. The infection specialist Dr. Alexander Friedrich from the Münster University Hospital fears that even simple infections will not be treated in the future, because the remedies are no longer effective. (Ag)

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There are no mild antibiotics
New active ingredient: antibiotics resistant to pest
Doctors often prescribe unnecessary antibiotics
Alternatives to antibiotics from naturopathy