'Antibiotics no cure for running nose'

A new study has found that antibiotics aren?t actually beneficial when one has a running nose.

Don’t bother reaching for that bottle of pills the next time you have a running nose, for a new study has found that antibiotics aren’t actually beneficial.

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A team of researchers in New Zealand searched the scientific literature for trials comparing antibiotics with placebo for acute purulent rhinitis (a runny nose with coloured discharge), and found that only one out of six people benefit from antibiotics.

They also found that instead of making things better antibiotics can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain, as well as rashes and hyperactivity, thus making patients feel worse, reports the BMJ (British Medical Journal).

The researchers found that no serious harm occurred in the placebo arm in any of the seven trials that took place, thus fitting the medical view that this is not a serious condition.

The authors state that most patients will get better without antibiotics.

The study is published on bmj.com.