{"id":662523,"date":"2026-10-31T08:26:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662523\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T08:26:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T08:26:23","slug":"one-in-four-americans-admit-exaggerating-symptoms-to-get-antibiotics-why-patients-feel-the-need-to-lie-to-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662523\/","title":{"rendered":"One in four Americans admit exaggerating symptoms to get antibiotics: Why patients feel the need to lie to doctors |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"One Imagine going to a doctor with a sore throat and a cough, only to leave with a prescription for rest, fluids and perhaps a painkiller. You’re still feeling miserable, you have work waiting and you were hoping for antibiotics. So, at your next appointment, you make the symptoms sound a little worse. Maybe the fever has lasted longer than it actually has. Maybe you mention a symptom you never had.A new American study suggests that this isn’t an isolated behaviour. More than one in four adults surveyed admitted exaggerating or making up symptoms to get antibiotics. Some had done it for themselves; others had misrepresented a child’s symptoms while seeking a prescription.The study, published in JAMA Network Open<\/a> on October 30, 2026, surveyed 959 American adults between January and February. Of these, 268 said they had deliberately misrepresented their symptoms to a healthcare professional to obtain antibiotics.Why would someone lie about being ill just to get a particular medicine? The researchers found that the reasons went beyond simply wanting a prescription.<\/p>\n

When patients believe antibiotics are the only way out<\/p>\n

Among those who admitted exaggerating or inventing symptoms, 62.2% said they did so because they felt very sick. Another 61.8% believed antibiotics were the only thing that would help them recover.There was also the practical problem of having to get on with life. Around 61% thought taking antibiotics would help them return to work, look after their children or resume their usual responsibilities sooner. More than half feared their illness might become serious if they didn’t get the medicine.The symptoms people were most likely to exaggerate were surprisingly ordinary: cough, sore throat, fever and a stuffy nose. Some also reported making up stomach complaints, muscle and joint pain or eye problems.Alistair Thorpe, PhD, research assistant professor of population health sciences at University of Utah Health and one of the study’s first authors, pointed to a familiar problem. When people feel unwell, being told to wait it out can be frustrating, particularly when they believe a prescription will help them recover faster.But antibiotics don’t work that way.<\/p>\n

When a patient feels the doctor isn’t listening<\/p>\n

One of the more interesting findings was the connection between symptom exaggeration and previous experiences with healthcare professionals.Nearly 48% of respondents who admitted misrepresenting their symptoms said they often felt doctors did not take their complaints seriously. Among those who had never exaggerated or invented symptoms, only 21.3% reported feeling this way.That difference raises a question about what happens during a consultation. Do some patients feel they have to make their illness sound more serious before a doctor will pay attention?Andrea Levy, PhD, a co-author of the study and professor at Connecticut State Community College Middlesex, suggested that earlier experiences may influence how patients behave during later appointments.There may also be a misunderstanding about recovery. Someone who was prescribed antibiotics during an earlier illness and subsequently got better might credit the medicine, even if the infection was viral and would have cleared on its own.The association can stick. The next time they develop a cough or sore throat, they may expect the same prescription.<\/p>\n

The problem with taking antibiotics when they aren’t needed<\/p>\n

Antibiotics treat bacterial infections. They cannot kill viruses, which cause illnesses such as the common cold and influenza. Yet the expectation that antibiotics will fix almost any infection remains difficult to shake.Taking them unnecessarily isn’t harmless. Antibiotics can cause diarrhoea, nausea, allergic reactions and other side effects. More broadly, unnecessary use contributes to antimicrobial resistance. This happens when bacteria develop the ability to survive medicines that were once effective against them, making certain infections harder to treat.The study’s findings do not mean that doctors should doubt patients whenever they describe severe symptoms. Nor does it suggest that everyone who asks for antibiotics is exaggerating an illness.Angela Fagerlin, PhD, the study’s senior author and chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at University of Utah Health, highlighted the need to understand how doctors and patients communicate about treatment.The researchers also acknowledge that the study relied on self-reported answers from an online, non-probability sample. The findings therefore cannot be assumed to represent every American adult.Still, there’s a lesson here for both sides of the consulting-room desk. Patients need to describe what they’re actually experiencing, rather than what they think will get them a prescription. Doctors, meanwhile, need to explain why antibiotics may not help and what patients can do instead.Sometimes, a patient isn’t trying to fool a doctor for the sake of getting medicine. They are simply convinced that without it, they won’t get better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine going to a doctor with a sore throat and a cough, only to leave with a prescription…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[298313,298312,11495,163,85,46,298317,482,298314,298315,298316],"class_list":["post-662523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-americans-exaggerating-symptoms","tag-antibiotics-symptoms-exaggeration","tag-antimicrobial-resistance","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jama-network-open-study","tag-medication","tag-overprescription-of-antibiotics","tag-patient-doctor-communication","tag-symptoms-misrepresentation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}