A new strategy for prescribing antibiotics could help reduce misuse of the drugs and help tackle the rise in antibiotic resistance, scientists have said.

The discovery and development of antibiotics in the 1940s and 1950s counts as one of the major medical breakthroughs of the 20th century. As a result of these drugs, many infections, such as pneumonia and TB, are often no longer seen as potential killers.

However, major overuse has led to the problem of antibiotic resistance, whereby major infections build up a resistance to drugs that have been used over a long period of time and in great numbers. As a result, many antibiotics are becoming less effective at treating infections in Ireland and worldwide.

This can be a particularly serious problem in hospitals, where patients who have had procedures, or who are getting major surgery, or are in intensive care, are prone to developing 'super bugs' that are resistant to many antibiotics. These can cause serious illness and death.

Scottish researchers set out to develop a new strategy for prescribing these drugs. They followed the progress of more than 500 patients with lower respiratory tract infections. These affect the airways and lungs and are often referred to as chest infections. The participants were monitored for one year.

The researchers developed a new prescribing protocol for these patients, which included automatic stop dates, with time limits on prescriptions depending on the severity of an infection. In other words, people with more severe infections would take the drugs for longer periods than those with milder infections.

Support from pharmacists was essential to ensure that the antibiotics were issued with stop dates that the patients could clearly see and understand.

During the first six months of the study period, the patients' usual duration of antibiotic use was monitored. During the second six months, antibiotics were provided under the new protocol.

For the entire study period, the researchers monitored potential antibiotic side-effects, patients' length of stay in hospital and death rates.

The study found that use of the new protocol led to an almost 20% reduction in antibiotic use overall and a 40% reduction in antibiotic-related side-effects.

Commenting on the findings, the study's lead author, Dr Matthew Lloyd from the University of Dundee, emphasised that resistance to antibiotics is increasing, ‘which is in part attributable to inappropriately lengthy courses of antibiotics'.

"Our study aimed to implement a simple system for preventing patients taking antibiotics for longer than they should. The results were promising and found that through prescribing automatic stop dates and working with our multidisciplinary colleagues, we can help prevent this problem and reduce patient harm," he explained.

Details of these findings were presented at the 2013 Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Barcelona.