Antibiotics Don’t Calm Lingering Coughs

That lingering cough may be annoying, but taking an antibiotic won’t help in most cases, a new study shows. The study included more than 2,000 adults with coughs that had lasted at least 4 weeks. Their symptoms did not suggest they had pneumonia or another infection caused by bacteria. People were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group took the antibiotic amoxicillin for a week. The other group took placebo (fake) pills. People who got the real drugs didn’t get better any faster than the placebo group. Their symptoms lasted just as long and were not any milder. But the group that got the antibiotic did have more side effects. These included nausea, rash and diarrhea. Results were similar for both younger and older adults. The journal Lancet Infectious Disease published the study online December 18.