When a cough lasts more than a week most of us think we need an antibiotic. Experts from the University of Georgia explained that acute bronchitis (an acute illness with hacking cough) can last for weeks.

The authors explained in Annals of Family Medicine that an acute cough lasts for an average of 18 days. People’s concern that their cough has gone on for over a week is contributing to the over-prescription of antibiotics.

Dr. Mark Ebell and team set out to compare how long most coughs last and people’s expectations. They found that patients expect their cough to be resolved within one week to up to a maximum of nine days. In reality, a bronchial illness (which includes coughing) takes an average of 18 days to clear up.

The team gathered and examined data on 19 observational studies across Europe, the USA, Kenya and Russia. They found that by looking at the average time a cough took to run its course among those in the placebo groups (untreated control groups), a cough lasts for an average of 17.8 days.

They added targeted questions to the bi-annual Georgia Poll to determine how long patients usually expect their coughs to last. This poll is a […]