Table 1.

Studies of the Effect of Antibiotics on Cough Symptoms or Other Outcomes in Patients With Acute Bronchitis^*

Drug	Study/Year	Patients, No.	Age,† yr	Population	Dosing	Results	p Value
Erythromycin vs placebo	Hueston60/1994	46	18–65	Acute bronchitis	250 mg po qid × 10 d	Reduction in frequency of cough	NS
						Reduction in mucus production	NS
						Increased side effects	NS
	Brickfield et al59/1986	52	18–65	Acute bronchitis	333 mg tid × 7 d	Cough symptoms significantly better on days 3, 5, and 6; magnitude of benefit not given	≤ 0.5
	Dunlay et al58/1987	63	43.5	Acute bronchitis	333 mg tid × 10 d	Cough symptoms; data not shown	NS
	Brickfield et al59/1986	52	18–65	Acute bronchitis	333 mg tid × 7 d	Cough symptoms; data shown graphically	< 0.05
	Dunlay et al58/1987	63	43.5	Acute bronchitis	333 mg tid × 10 d	Day/night cough symptoms	NS
	King et al57/1996	91	37 ± 13.7	Acute bronchitis	250 mg qid × 10 d	Cough frequency; data not reported	NS
Immediate or delayed antibiotics vs placebo	Dowell et al56/2001	191	39	Acute cough	Immediate antibiotics (14 d) vs 1 wk delayed antibiotics	Recovery from cough; data in graph form	NS
Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole vs placebo	Franks and Gleiner55/1984	67	39	Acute bronchitis	160/800 mg bid × 7 d	Presence of nighttime cough 56% treatment, 84% placebo	0.03
						Daytime cough frequency	NS
						Presence of cough 93% treatment, 99% placebo	0.05
Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid vs placebo	Gottfarb and Brauner54/1994	52	2.65; 0.58–7	LRI	20 mg/kg/d × 7 d	Recovery from cough at 7 d in 71% vs 22%	0.002
Amoxicillin/ambroxol vs amoxicillin	Peralta et al53/1987	24	59.6 ± 8	Bronchitis	500/30 mg tid × 10 d	Cough symptoms similar	NS
						Cough clearance improved by 90%	≤ 0.001
Doxycycline vs placebo	Scherl et al52/1987	39	30	Bronchitis	100 mg bid × 1 d then	No. of days of cough reduced from 15 to 9.4	NS
					100 mg qd × 6 d
	Stott and West50/1976	212	NR (14+ yr)	Bronchitis	100 mg bid × 1 d, then	Daytime cough score similar	NS
					100 mg qd × 9 d
						Nighttime cough score similar	NS
	Verheij et al51/1994	158	NR (18+ yr)	Bronchitis or URI	200 mg qd × 1 d, then	Percent with cough
					100 mg qd × 9 d
	Williamson49/1984	74	33.4	Bronchitis or URI	200 mg qd × 1 d, then	Cough duration	0.5
					100 mg qd × 6 d
						Interrupted sleep	NS
						Cough severity	NS

^*NS = not significant; LRI = lower respiratory tract infection; URI = upper respiratory tract infection; NR = not reported.

^†Values are given as the mean ± SD or range.