The idea that you need to take a full course of antibiotics came from studies which were done in patients with tuberculosis, which is very recalcitrant to treatment.
Depending on the infection that you have, finishing the course may not always be the best option since it nukes your microbiota and selects for more resistant pathogens. It depends on the rate of mutation of each pathogen, amongst other factors.
In the cancer field, where resistance is also very common, there are some groups exploring 'adaptive therapy' also known as 'press-pulse' therapy, where you intentionally stop treatment when symptoms go away, in order to maintain a population of the drug-sensitive cells, which will compete with the drug-resistant cells (since being resistant takes energy). It's not curative but when resistance is inevitable, could pro-long life of the patient. I wonder if this type of thing has already been tried with antibiotics.
Modifying Adaptive Therapy to Enhance Competitive Suppression
I appreciate this comment, but I think it's misplaced as the real issue is the candid handing out of antibiotics instead of controlling their use both in livestock and humans.
Depending on the infection that you have, finishing the course may not always be the best option since it nukes your microbiota and selects for more resistant pathogens. It depends on the rate of mutation of each pathogen, amongst other factors.
The antibiotic course has had its day
https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3418
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-the-full-course-of-an...
In the cancer field, where resistance is also very common, there are some groups exploring 'adaptive therapy' also known as 'press-pulse' therapy, where you intentionally stop treatment when symptoms go away, in order to maintain a population of the drug-sensitive cells, which will compete with the drug-resistant cells (since being resistant takes energy). It's not curative but when resistance is inevitable, could pro-long life of the patient. I wonder if this type of thing has already been tried with antibiotics.
Modifying Adaptive Therapy to Enhance Competitive Suppression
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761372/
Press-pulse: a novel therapeutic strategy for the metabolic management of cancer
https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10...