Effects of Antibiotics for Patients with Acute Bronchitis

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Acute bronchitis is a condition that is prevalent during the influenza season, with 90% of those patients requiring medical consultation. It is also one of the common causes of hospitalizations worldwide, amounting to over ten million patients diagnosed with lower respiratory tract infection, specifically acute bronchitis (Singh et al., 2021). Antibiotics are often used to address the coughing symptoms of the patient. However, it is also associated with side effects such as vomiting, allergic reactions, nausea, and Clostridium difficile infection (Mohsen et al., 2020). In the nursing practice, this issue is significant. It requires evidence-based care practice to decrease the negative side effects of antibiotics that are used to treat patients with acute bronchitis while decreasing the length of the disease and its associated symptoms.
In patients with acute bronchitis (Population), how effective are antibiotics (Intervention) in comparison to supportive treatment (Comparison) in decreasing the disease burden and length of illness (Outcome) in 7 days of treatment (Time)?
Search Methods
The research databases that are used are PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and ProQuest. The search terms used are the following: acute bronchitis, respiratory tract infection, coughing symptoms of acute bronchitis, traditional treatment, supportive treatment, antibiotics, side effects, and decreasing length of illness. Peer-reviewed articles are specifically chosen as literature for this research. The research studies have been published within the last five years.
Synthesis of the Literature
A research study about the pattern of outpatient prescriptions for acute bronchitis shows that there is a significant number of unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics, reaching up to 44% of all the outpatient prescriptions for antibiotics in the United States. This research argues that this does not result in any clinical improvement while also increasing the incidence of antibiotic resistance in the population. It is also worth considering that the symptoms of acute bronchitis are self-limiting within two to three weeks. Results show that for adult patients 18 years old and above, the common treatment included 46.4%, while 65.2% represent symptom management medications such as traditional Chinese medicines, antihistamines, and expectorants. Supportive care for acute bronchitis symptoms is considered an effective treatment option for most acute bronchitis patients. The study concludes that the number of antibiotic prescriptions is much higher than what is indicated in the treatment guidelines, and targeted interventions are suggested to improve the practice (Fu et al., 2021).
The inappropriate prescription of antibiotics is also found to affect the patient’s subsequent episodes of acute bronchitis. Based on the retrospective analysis of pediatric patients having an initial acute bronchitis episode, those who were administered with prescribed antibiotics developed a pattern of increased subsequent episodes compared to those who were not immediately prescribed antibiotics on their first consultation for acute bronchitis. In line with this, antibi...