More than one-quarter of adults in the United States say they have overstated or invented symptoms in order to get antibiotics from a doctor, according to News-Medical. The outlet reported the finding on Friday, October 30, 2026.
Coverage of the same survey put the share at roughly 28 percent of US adults, with several outlets describing respondents who acknowledged lying to obtain the drugs. News-Medical's headline places the figure at above one-quarter of Americans.
The reports did not, in the material available, specify the number of people surveyed, the polling method, or the organization behind the research. They also did not detail which symptoms respondents said they exaggerated.
The accounts differ slightly in framing: some describe patients who stretched the truth about how sick they were, while others describe outright fabrication. All of the coverage converges on the same broad result — a substantial minority of adults report misrepresenting their condition to seek antibiotics.
The finding matters because antibiotics are intended for bacterial infections and do not treat viral illnesses such as colds or flu. When patients press for the drugs anyway, clinicians face pressure to prescribe them outside accepted guidance. Public health authorities have long identified unnecessary prescribing as a driver of antibiotic resistance, though the reports summarized here did not make that link themselves.
What to watch next: whether the full survey is published with its methodology and sample size, and whether clinicians' groups respond with guidance on handling requests for antibiotics that are not medically indicated.
