Nearly 30% of U.S. adults have lied to doctors in an effort to obtain antibiotics, either by exaggerating their actual symptoms or by fabricating symptoms, the results of a new national survey suggest. Additionally, in a second survey, about one-quarter of children's caregivers reported lying about their kids' symptoms to get antibiotics on their behalf.
"As clinicians, we know that patients lie to us sometimes," Dr. Jeffrey Linder, a general internist and primary care clinician-investigator at Northwestern Medicine, wrote in a commentary about the survey findings.
However, the results are still important because the inappropriate use of antibiotics can contribute to the mounting problem of antibiotic resistance, in which bacteria bui...
English (US)