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Doctors are prescribing antibiotics to most children and teens with pink eye, even though guidelines discourage their use, researchers reported Thursday. Their research found that more than two-thirds of U.S. children and teens who visited a doctor for pink eye walked away with a prescription for antibiotic eye drops. The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends that doctors don’t routinely prescribe antibiotics for conjunctivitis, which usually clears up on its own.
Antibiotics don’t work at all on viruses — the most common cause of pink eye. And even mild eye infections caused by bacteria clear up on their own in most cases, the medical group says. Pink eye is highly contagious and causes red, swollen and sometimes itchy eyes. Often, a cool, wet towel and artificial tears are enough to ease symptoms. (Also read: Don’t ignore pink eye: As cases rise, know what causes conjunctivitis to rise in monsoon; how to prevent it ,
For their study, the researchers used a nationwide database of insurance claims from 2021. Nearly 45,000 children received care for pink eye at a doctor’s office, eye clinic or emergency room, and 69% were prescribed antibiotics, which come in drops and ointments. Whether they were treated or not, going back to the doctor for pink eye was rare, at less than 4%, according to the study published Thursday in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.
Doctors’ offices prescribed antibiotics the most, at 72% to patients, compared with 57% in emergency rooms and 34% in eye clinics. That may be because eye clinics have the tools to figure out what’s really causing pink eye and treat accordingly, said Dr. Rupa Wong, a pediatric ophthalmologist at the Honolulu Eye Clinic and a spokeswoman for the ophthalmology group.
Dr. Daniel Shapiro, a pediatric emergency physician and co-author of the study, said he understands why parents might be concerned when their child has an infection. “The eye looks red and bad and so it’s quite shocking and scary,” said Shapiro, of the University of California, San Francisco. But he added that antibiotics shouldn’t be overused if they’re not going to help.
The study did not provide details on why antibiotics were prescribed or what the outcome was. But the fact that relapses were rare in both cases indicates that patients are not at greater risk for complications or serious problems if they don’t get a prescription, Wong said. “There are other supportive measures we can do to make your child feel comfortable without resorting to antibiotic eye drops,” Wong said.
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