Sinus is an infection suffered by a large number of people nowadays and it is also true that the congested feeling never goes away easily without a doctor’s prescription. But, is that really beneficial? Are antibiotics the right treatment for sinus?

A new study has recently showed that antibiotics that are often prescribed by doctors for sinus infections do no good to treat the infection, and are equally useless as a spray or any pills on drugstore shelves to treat the same.

The results of the study have been published in the Feb. 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers are really worried that the common infection is almost drug resistant and medical science has to soon find an effective treatment for sinus.

Researchers ran their study on 166 patients, who all were diagnosed with sinus infection. Some of the participants were given a week's supply of over-the-counter meds to relieve their pain, fever, congestion and coughing, while some were prescribed a 10-day course of the antibiotic amoxicillin. Also, some others were given a placebo.

Researchers called all the groups of patients at days 3, 7, 10 and 28 of the treatment. The day 3 saw improvement in symptoms of facial pain, cough, runny nose, and post-nasal drip in no group, while day 7 showed slight improvement in antibiotic group which disappeared on the 10th day of the test.

“I think the data are something like 90 percent of people that go to a doctor's office and receive this diagnosis will be given an antibiotic prescription”, said study author Dr. Jane Garbutt, a research associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “I think that we should try and significantly reduce that percentage”.