The majority of GPs believe antibiotics are overprescribed, according to a new Irish study has indicated.

A survey of 103 GPs in the mid-west found that two out of three agreed that antibiotics are over-used in general practice.

Also, one out of three of the GPs surveyed said they felt under pressure at least once a day to prescribe an antibiotic.

Just over half of the GPs surveyed believed issuing a delayed prescription had the potential to reduce antibiotic use.

A delayed prescription is where a patient is told not to get the antibiotic prescribed unless symptoms worsen or do not start to resolve within an expected period of time.

The researchers, doctors from Limerick City and Co Kildare, said a delayed prescription is felt to be a compromise in situations where the doctor feels there is no clinical indication for an antibiotic, but the patient has requested one.

"It can also provide a safety net for the doctor, as we do not know who is at risk of subsequently developing rare but important complications of infection," the researchers said.

Nearly half the GPs surveyed felt that delayed prescriptions reduced the likelihood of a return visit for the same illness, while around the same proportion agreed that these prescriptions gave the patient a greater say in managing their illness.

Half of the GPs surveyed saw an average of more than 30 patients per day. The majority of those surveyed felt under pressure to prescribe antibiotics when they felt these drugs were unnecessary.

The authors concluded that delayed prescriptions wer a useful management option for the majority of GPs surveyed.

They said as long as patients were given clear information about when to use antibiotics and when to retuturn for assessment, delayed prescriptions for conditions such as upper respiratory tract infections were probably as safe or safer than other strategies and were acceptable to patients.

The research is published in the current issue of the Irish Medical Journal.