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A survey of 959 U.S. adults collected from January 8 to February 13, 2026, found that 27.9% of respondents admitted to exaggerating or fabricating symptoms in order to obtain antibiotics from a clinician, as published in JAMA Network Open. Among those who misrepresented symptoms, 76.9% reported successfully obtaining antibiotics at least once. Common motivations included feeling seriously ill (62.2%), believing antibiotics were necessary for recovery (61.8%), and wanting to resume work or other responsibilities sooner (61.0%). Cold-like symptoms were the most frequently misrepresented (65.7%), followed by stomach symptoms (eg, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation) (49.3%). Younger adults and respondents who believed that clinicians did not take their symptoms seriously were more likely to report misrepresentation.
Pants on fire: What’s interesting is that only 28.7% of the fabricators regretted misrepresenting their symptoms and only 35.8% of all respondents correctly said that antibiotics are not effective at treating viruses. This provides even more evidence of the challenges associated with appropriate antibiotic prescribing and antimicrobial stewardship. The authors emphasize the need for improving patient-clinician communication about appropriate antibiotic use.