[Patients expect antibiotics. Or not? A folie a deux]

Doctors often feel pressured by patients to prescribe antibiotics for a common cold or a sore throat, against their better judgment. Yet do patients really put pressure on their doctor or even expect a prescription for an antibiotic or some other medicine? Several interesting studies shed some light on this issue. Doctors in an emergency department, for example, prescribed an antibiotic much more frequently than their patients expected them to. Only in 25% of cases were the doctors correct in their assumptions about patient expectations. In a Norwegian study, the authors found that parents wanted more time and explanation for their coughing children and fewer prescriptions. So instead of assuming that patients want antibiotics for innocent symptoms, we should put more effort into exploring patients' expectations and providing them with relevant information. That way we can step out of the folie a deux.