'Ten commandments' for the appropriate use of antibiotics by the practicing physician in an outpatient setting

Journal article

A multi-national working group on antibiotic stewardship, from the International Society of Chemotherapy, put together ten recommendations to physicians prescribing antibiotics to outpatients. These recommendations are: (1) use antibiotics only when needed; teach the patient how to manage symptoms of non-bacterial infections; (2) select the adequate ATB; precise targeting is better than shotgun therapy; (3) consider pharmacokinetics and phar-macodynamics when selecting an ATB; use the shortest ATB course that has proven clinical efficacy; (4) encourage patients' compliance; (5) use antibiotic combinations only in specific situations; (6) avoid low quality and sub-standard drugs; prevent prescription changes at the drugstore; (7) discourage self-prescription; (8) follow only evidence-based guidelines; beware those sponsored by drug companies; (9) rely (rationally) upon the clinical microbiology lab; and (10) prescribe ATB empirically - but intelligently; know local susceptibility trends, and also surveillance limitations. © 2011 Lev-Hara, Amábile-Cuevas, Gould, Hutchinson, Abbo, Saxynger, Vlieghe, Cardoso, Methar, Kanj, Ohmagari, HarbarthandISC-ASW Group.

Authors: Levy-Hara, G; Amábile-Cuevas, C; Gould, I; Hutchinson, J; Abbo, L

• Journal: Frontiers in Microbiology
• Volume: 2
• Issue: NOV
• Publication date: 2011-01-01
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2011.00230
• EISSN: 1664-302X
• Language: English
• Keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Treatment compliance; Guidelines; Generic antibiotics; Self-prescription; Antibiotic stewardship