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More than a quarter of Americans have exaggerated or made up symptoms to try to get antibiotics from their doctor, either for themselves or for their children, a new study has found. The survey of nearly 1,000 people nationwide uncovered common motivations for misrepresenting symptoms, including feeling very sick or needing to return to work or school.

The results indicate an urgent need for better communication between doctors and patients, so that patients can be confident that their symptoms are taken seriously and treated appropriately—whether or not that means antibiotics.

"Now that we have a clearer picture of how common these behaviors are and the reasons behind them, the next step is to look at strategies that help patients express their preferences and communicate what they're feeling to their provider, and for their provider to hear them, understand their concerns, and reassure them," says Alistair Thorpe, Ph.D., research assistant professor of population health sciences at University of Utah Health and one of the first authors on the study.

Among survey respondents, 28% said that they had deliberately misrepresented disease symptoms to try to get antibiotics for themselves. A similar proportion, 27%, said that they had misrepresented symptoms to get antibiotics for a child in their care. This included cases in which a symptom was exaggerated or entirely made up.

People most commonly misrepresented symptoms because they felt very sick, or felt that their child was very sick, and believed that antibiotics were the only treatment that would work.

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