When parents bring their children to a medical doctor because of acute otitis media (ear infection), the doctor usually prescribes antibiotics. This practice continues despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the over-use, misuse and abuse of antibiotics has led to the introduction of resistant strains of bacteria and a resulting health crisis.

Now, yet another study, published in the British Medical Journal, has been published saying medical doctors should withhold the antibiotics and, instead, take a "wait and see" approach. If they did, it would substantially reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics, the researchers concluded.

Parents of 315 children between 6 months and 10 years of age, attending general practices with acute otitis media were randomly offered two treatment strategies: immediate antibiotics or delayed antibiotics (parents asked to wait 72 hours after seeing the doctor before considering using the prescription).

The perceived benefits of the antibiotics were questioned, since they appeared after the first 24 hours, when distress and symptoms were already improving, the researchers said. In addition, immediate antibiotics increased diarrhea by 10%. Those whose children got the antibiotics right away were apt to think the drug was effective, an attitude which could lead them to requesting the medication too frequently in the future.

However, 77% of parents given delayed prescriptions were very satisfied with the "wait and see" approach. Furthermore, fewer believed in the effectiveness of antibiotics and in the need to see their doctor with the same problem in the future. This approach also resulted in a 76% reduction in the use of antibiotic prescriptions, helping, the authors concluded, to reduce the danger of antibiotic resistance.