Should I take antibiotics for bronchitis?
You should take antibiotics for bronchitis under your physician's instruction. However, there are many patients of mine that have long-term lung problems, orchronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and I teasingly tell them that the next time they get an attack of acute bronchitis, it's going to be 1 o'clock at night on a Friday night. It's impossible for them to find their physician, so I will not uncommonly tell the patients that I see frequently who I understand and they understand their own lung that I'll give them a prescription, undated, for antibiotics that are broad spectrum and that we know have worked before for them so that they can get on that attack of bronchitis right away. We tell patients commonly that if their mucus or their sputum changes in color, consistency or amount, in other words, it was white and it becomes yellow, or it was yellow and it becomes white, or they used to have a lot of it and now they have a little of it, or if its consistency used to be very thin and now it's thick, that they need to get treatment right away. But these are the patients who have had long-standing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and we understand them well. The answer to your question is should I get treatment for my bronchitis, usually not, most commonly virus. But, many times, we know that these people will develop frequent bacterial complications, and so, yes, we would treat it.
