ArticlePloS one2019
Medical prescribing and antibiotic resistance: A game-theoretic analysis of a potentially catastrophic social dilemma.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bactericidal activity of silver nanoparticles in drug-resistant bacteria.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2023Pooled it
- Free Riding in Healthcare Through a Game-Theoretic Lens: A Cross-Domain Narrative Review and Conceptual Synthesis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Understanding dentists' antibiotic prescribing behaviour in Spain: a focus group study.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Article
- Article
- Barriers to the widespread adoption of diagnostic artificial intelligence for preventing antimicrobial resistance.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Prosocial Behaviour and Antibiotic Resistance: Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment.The patient · 2024Article
- Studying mixed-species biofilms of Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus using evolutionary game theory.PloS one · 2024Article
- Existing terminology related to antimicrobial resistance fails to evoke risk perceptions and be remembered.Communications medicine · 2023Article
- Burden of Pertussis in Adults Aged 50 Years and Older: A Retrospective Database Study in England.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2023Article
- Behavioral determinants of antibiotic resistance: The role of social information.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2022Article
- Disparity in socio-economic status explains the pattern of self-medication of antibiotics in India: understanding from game-theoretic perspective.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Non-prescription acquisition of antibiotics: Prevalence, motives, pathways and explanatory factors in the Swedish population.PloS one · 2022Article
- Optimising antimicrobial use in humans - review of current evidence and an interdisciplinary consensus on key priorities for research.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2021Review
- Artificial Intelligence: The New Alexander Fleming.Healthcare informatics research · 2021Article
- Modelling collective action to change social norms around domestic violence: social dilemmas and the role of altruism.Humanities & social sciences communications · 2021Article
- Harnessing the wisdom of crowds can improve guideline compliance of antibiotic prescribers and support antimicrobial stewardship.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Incentivising wealthy nations to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX): a game theory perspective.BMJ global health · 2020Article
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- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The availability of antibiotics presents medical practitioners with a prescribing dilemma. On the one hand, antibiotics provide a safe and effective treatment option for patients with bacterial infections, but at a population level, over-prescription reduces their effectiveness by facilitating the evolution of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotic medication. A game-theoretic investigation, including analysis of equilibrium strategies, evolutionarily stability, and replicator dynamics, reveals that rational doctors, motivated to attain the best outcomes for their own patients, will prescribe antibiotics irrespective of the level of antibiotic resistance in the population and the behavior of other doctors, although they would achieve better long-term outcomes if their prescribing were more restrained. Ever-increasing antibiotic resistance may therefore be inevitable unless some means are found of modifying the payoffs of this potentially catastrophic social dilemma.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.