A new study has found that doctors are about 25 percent more likely to prescribe antibiotics to patients who don't need them at the end of their work shift when they're tired, according to Fox News.
Both doctors and patients should make sure to note the "decision fatigue" in the future.
"Just as an observation it kind of makes sense, doctors are human too and we get tired over the course of the day and tend to make worse-appearing decision," stated Dr. Jeffrey A. Linder of the Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who coauthored the research letter.
Researchers reportedly studied health records at 23 different facilities for the past 17 months. It was found that is more likelier for doctors to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics to treat an upper respiratory infection later in their shifts than early on in their shifts, according to Tech Times.
Out of the 21,867 respiratory infection cases in the study, 44% resulted in an antibiotic prescription, according to electronic health records. Researchers reportedly divided clinic visits into two "shifts" for the study and over the course of each shift, antibiotic prescribing increased for diagnoses that don't need to be treated with the drugs.
For the conditions that shouldn't require antibiotics, doctors reportedly prescribed them about 30 percent of the time at 1PM and about 35 percent of the the time at 4PM, according to Fox News.
"Their antibiotic prescribing is inconsistent with the diagnosis they're giving the patient. That 25 to 26 should be closer to zero," stated Linder.
António Teixeira Rodrigues, a researcher at the Center for Cell Biology at the University of Aveiro in Portugal who was not part of the study, expressed how this can be a dangerous issue.
"It reveals how complex the antibiotic prescribing process is, comprising medical, social and economic issues and should concern health professionals and authorities, and the general population because it increases the complexity and difficulty of tackling this public health problem," Rodrigues told Reuters Health by email.
