Penicillin for acute sore throat: randomised double bind trial of seven days versus three days treatment or placebo in adults
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Penicillin treatment for seven days is better than a three day course (or placebo) in resolving the symptoms of an acute sore throat (streptococcal pharyngitis) report a team of researchers from the Netherlands in this week's BMJ.
Dr Sjoerd Zwart from the University Medical Center Utrecht and colleagues studied a total of 561 patients aged 15-60 years with a sore throat for less than seven days and they found that in those patients taking penicillin for seven days symptoms resolved between 1.9 and 1.7 days earlier than those not taking the same course of penicillin. In patients with group A streptococci the authors found that symptoms resolved 2.5 days earlier with a seven day course. They found that penicillin was also effective in patients with bacteria other than group A streptococci. Zwart et al report that a three day penicillin course was not effective in treating acute sore throat and even tended towards an increased recurrence rate in the following six months.
They conclude that, based on their findings, the tendency in western Europe to reduce the duration of penicillin treatment for streptococcal pharyngitis should be discouraged.
Contact:
Dr Sjoerd Zwart, Senior Researcher, Julius Center for General Practice and Patient-oriented Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands
Tel: +31 38 3 330 909 or 38 3 328 126 (home)
szwart@knmg.nl