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Alternative medicine may help reduce overprescribing of antibiotics

GP surgeries with doctors who also have training in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) appear to be less likely to prescribe antibiotics, suggests a study published in BMJ Open.

Researchers, led by the University of Bristol, analysed data from 7274 GP surgeries and 9 practices that had GPs with training in the use of CAM integrated in their daily practice, also known as integrative medicine (IM).

The analysis showed that practices that employed GPs with additional training in IM had significantly lower antibiotic prescribing rates than those with conventional GPs. Prescribing of antibiotics for patients with respiratory tract infections was noticeably less in practices with IM-knowledgeable GPs. However, there was no difference between the 2 types of practice when it came to levels of antibiotic prescribing to patients with urinary tract infections. The lower antibiotic prescription rates of practices with GPs trained in IM were in line with current national guidance aimed at reducing antibiotic usage and antimicrobial resistance.

“Additional treatment strategies for common primary care infections used by practices with GPs trained in IM should be explored to see if they could be used to assist in the fight against antimicrobial resistance,” the authors concluded.

They acknowledged that the results were limited by the small number of practices with IM-trained GPs, lack of data on number of consultations, individual GP characteristics, individual deprivation scores and continuum of care. Nevertheless, they said the difference seen in antibiotic prescribing rates at practices with GPs trained in IM warrants further study.


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