High doses of antibiotics for ear infections questioned

To the list of questions about possible overuse of antibiotics, pediatricians at the Georgetown University School of Medicine add another: Could the recently recommended higher dose to treat ear infections be hurting as much as it is helping?

For their small study, the researchers compared records of 25 children who were prescribed a low dose of amoxicillin (45 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day) in 1998 and 1999 against those of 25 children who got a high dose (90 mg/kg/d) in 2000 and 2001.

Standard dosage guidelines were raised in an attempt to better eradicate penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major cause of middle-ear infections. While that appears to have worked, the study found that the higher dose also killed greater numbers of beneficial bacteria that would normally delay the pathogen's return.

The researchers did not reach a conclusion on which is better. "This study illustrates the potential adverse effect of using the high dose of amoxicillin in the treatment of acute otitis media in children," they wrote in this month's Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, calling for more research. Yet another worry for parents of young children. - Don Sapatkin