Stopping Behavioral Interventions May Cause Rebound in Inappropriate Antibiotic Prescribing

​Researchers found an increase in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing when behavioral interventions for reducing such prescribing were stopped, according to a research letter published October 10, 2017, in JAMA. A previous study examined how two behavioral interventions ("accountable justification" and "peer comparison") reduced inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections. Participants in the "accountable justification" group were prompted by the electronic health record to provide a free-text explanation of why they prescribed antibiotics while those in the "peer comparison" group received monthly emails that compared their rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing with clinicians who had the lowest rates. (See February 19, 2016, Physician Practice E-News:Two Socially Motivated Interventions Reduce Inappropriate Prescribing for more on this study.