# Why do you need a prescription for Amoxicillin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155 "2011-05-16T23:51:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/41 "2011-05-18T19:00:04Z")
I spend a significant proportion of my day trying to convince people who think they need ABx, that, actually, they don’t. Og help us if they could reach for the co-amoxiclav every time they have a sniffle. It’s mostly viral, people- you’ll do fine without the antibiotics. Although, since drugs on prescription are free, patients would still have an incentive to see a Dr rather than pay for it. I have patients coming to see me just so that they can get paracetamol (acetominophen) on prescription- and that stuff costs approximately 1p a tablet. Never underestimate the ability of people to try and get free stuff. We should be trying to move away from the perception that ABx are cheap, mild, safe and harmless. They aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/42 "2011-05-27T03:10:23Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Have you considered reading this thread at all? It’s been answered several times already. > > Here’s yet another reason: there are a large number of antibiotics, each of which is only effective against some types of bacteria and not against others. While amoxicillin is pretty wide-spectrum, the only way to know what kind of bacterial infection you have, and thus which antibiotic will be effective, is to get a lab test from your doctor. Great point. Many people out there apparently don’t understand that different antibiotics treat different kind of infections. You shouldn’t just blindly take amoxicillin for anything that seems like an infection. In med school, we spent a lot of time learning what antibiotics to use at what doses for what kind of infections (and no, it’s not always the same antibiotic for the same infection - there are reasons why docs in the hospital will order a culture on sputum for a pneumonia patient and urine cultures on a patient with a UTI - to see what bacteria grows out and what antibiotics will kill it). Unfortunately, there are many primary care doctors who will give out antibiotics as essentially a placebo to people who don’t really need them (such as the people with viral upper respiratory infections), because getting antibiotics makes the people feel like “something has been done” (and they refuse to leave the doctor’s office unless something has been done!). Some doctors don’t want to take the time to argue with ignorant patients who are deadset on the idea that antibiotics will cure their cold and find it easier to just write the prescription to shut them up. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/43 "2011-05-27T16:39:51Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > Unfortunately, there are many primary care doctors who will give out antibiotics as essentially a placebo to people who don’t really need them (such as the people with viral upper respiratory infections), because getting antibiotics makes the people feel like “something has been done” (and they refuse to leave the doctor’s office unless something has been done!). Some doctors don’t want to take the time to argue with ignorant patients who are deadset on the idea that antibiotics will cure their cold and find it easier to just write the prescription to shut them up. Makes me wonder why docs don’t prescribe something a little less horrid for those patients. Why not, say, a nice zinc supplement? Probably not useful, but possibly more useful than antibiotics, and if they make the dose low enough, shouldn’t do harm… ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/44 "2011-05-27T16:44:14Z")
I think they make a drug just for people who think medication will help, I think it goes under the name Obecalp? ---
**Author:** ![Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Hirka\_T\_Bawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirka_T_Bawa)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/45 "2011-05-27T16:48:48Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > I think they make a drug just for people who think medication will help, I think it goes under the name Obecalp? Morphine Obecalp, the Good stuff! For those that don’t get it, obecalp is placebo backwards. ---
**Author:** ![horsetech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dec6dc/32.png) [@horsetech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horsetech)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/46 "2011-05-27T17:31:21Z")
I personally prefer Fukitol. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/47 "2011-05-27T17:45:05Z")
I never actually checked to see if we could order it, but there was definitely a Cebocap in the computer system at my old job ([pla]cebocap) Nothing else useful that hasn’t already been mentioned. In fact, sometimes doctors default to amoxicillin - went to a doc-in-a-box on a weekend for a UTI, and he gave me amoxicillin. Had to get the pharmacist to call and get it changed to something useful, since it’s, what, 8th-line treatment for UTI’s now? 😛 (now, that practice has since been closed since he was giving out half-pints of purple drank to anyone willing to pay for an office visit. Literally. Waiting room full of people driving from the next state over, even.) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/48 "2011-05-28T02:19:41Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > I think they make a drug just for people who think medication will help, I think it goes under the name Obecalp? I feel better just reading about it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2017, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-you-need-a-prescription-for-amoxicillin/582155/51 "2017-08-25T12:55:30Z")
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