There were made studies, and at the final point of them, scientists reached at the conclusion that patients with acute bronchitis get a minimal help if they follow antibiotic therapy. We must mention that acute bronchitis is the recent onset of a productive cough in a patient without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sinusitis or pneumonia. In the studies that were made, there were included male and female adults, and some children eight years of age and older. Among these persons some were smokers and some were non smokers.



Because of the use of antibiotics, there appeared a mild benefit: antibiotics decreased sputum production by one-half day.

A study similarly found small benefits, like decreasing daytime cough at a follow-up visit, 0.6 fewer days of sputum production, 0.7 fewer days of impairment of activities, and also small benefits in what concerns degree of chest congestion, taking cold or cough medicines, and abnormal lung examination results.

There was discovered an interesting fact, and this is that no statistical difference in days of cough, days of daytime cough, days of nighttime cough, productive cough at a follow-up visit, days of fever, purulent sputum at follow-up, sore throat or lower respiratory infections was observed in the next six months. Also, it was seen a bizarre thing- there was a small decrease in both upper and the combination of upper and lower respiratory tract infections in the next six months.

In the antibiotic- treated group appeared some medications side effects. These adverse effects were mainly gastrointestinal - and here we can mention nausea and vomiting- but also there appeared headache, rash and vaginitis. As a result of the study, we can mention that the beneficial effect of antibiotics was small, and in the same time the side effects were also small.

A lot of people develop bronchitis, and there appears the question if doctors should treat patients who have symptoms of acute bronchitis with antibiotics. Studies revealed that if the patients with acute bronchitis follow an antibiotic treatment there can appear some slight benefits, but we must mention there is not a compelling reason to treat these patients with antibiotics.