Research conducted by Scottish researchers has suggested that a newly developed strategy can control the over usage of antibiotics, hence mitigating antibiotic resistance among patients.

In this study, over 500 patients with lower respiratory tract infections were observed for one year. A new protocol for prescribing the drugs was developed for these patients. The study was led by Dr. Matthew Lloyd from the University of Dundee.

"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' we can help prevent this problem and reduce patient harm", said Dr. Lloyd.

He added that support by pharmacists is quintessential, and they should mention easily read stop dates on the drugs. It was found that this new method could reduce the antibiotic usage by 20% and side-effects caused by antibiotics could be lessen by remarkable 40%.

Due to overuse of antibiotics, the problem of antibiotic resistance has been on a rise all over the world. Antibiotic resistance is a problem, when infections in the body become immune to the drugs used by a person repeatedly and that too in high quantity.

Patients in intensive care units and after major surgeries are therefore prone to develop problems of super bugs, which are antibiotic resistant. These super bugs many cause serious diseases and even death.

Thus, there is a need of new strategy to be followed by the doctors worldwide, which could minimize the overdose and misuse of the antibiotic drugs.