Antibiotics may not be the best way to treat ear infections. A study from the University of Pittsburgh found that children treated with Amoxicillin didn’t recover faster than children treated with a placebo, and were even more likely to have their infections recur.

These results contradict a 1987 analysis of the same data, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine which supported Amoxicillin treatment.

It was found that the original report supporting Amoxicillin may have been tainted: The authors of the original report omitted data that did not support Amoxicillin. And that Amoxicillin’s manufacturer paid $260,000 in honoraria to the scientist responsible for the favorable Amoxicillin report. In addition, the manufacturer paid 3.5 million in research grants to the research center where the study was performed.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association (Dec. 18, 1991), E.I.Cantekin, et. al., Antimicrobial therapy for otitis media with effusion (secretory otitis media)