title: Should we now hold back from initially prescribing antibiotics for acute otitis media?
abstract: The research literature provides surprisingly little evidence of benefit for initially treating acute otitis media in children with antibiotics. We show how to calculate the amount of benefit and harm from the evidence, and how this might be applied to change management practice.
authors.affiliation: Centre for General Practice, University of Queensland Medical School, Herston, Australia. c.delmar@mailbox.uq.edu.au
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Del Mar
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Glasziou
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D018579:Patient Selection; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents