NEW YORK - Children admitted in hospitals are increasingly receiving medicines that are meant for adults, says a new study published in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The study found that nearly 80 percent of children receive such off-label medicines.
However the study did not examine if these medicines were safely tolerated by children, it said that the problem is widespread and has potential safety ramifications.
The researchers examined some 90 commonly used drugs in hospitals. These drugs included ibuprofen, morphine, dopamine and albuterol. They found that more and more children were receiving drugs for conditions other than what was indicated on the label.
This was especially true in children who were very sick or had undergone surgery recently. Drug trials rarely include children so the effect of any drug on this group is poorly understood. The common practice is to give the same medicine in decreased dosage. However experts stress that the constitution of children is different and needs to be extensively studied before allotting any drug.
"We measured the magnitude of off-label use of drugs in children," said study author Samir S. Shah, of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Given the nature of the available data, we could not evaluate safety and effectiveness of those medications, although those are important concerns. However, only a small number of drugs have been formally tested in children."
The study examined the drug usage in 31 children's hospitals in the year 2004. All subjects involved in the study were at least 18 years old or younger. The study found that at least one drug was used off label in some 297,592 of the 355,409 patients studied.
"A lot of medications simply do not have enough information to make the informed decisions that we need to be making and that patients and parents expect us to be making," Shah said.
The study found that some 28 percent of children received morphine although it is contraindicated in this group. The medicines most likely to be abused included nutrients and gastrointestinal medications, besides drugs approved for nervous conditions.
"We hope that by better defining the magnitude of off-label drug use, our study may help encourage greater cooperation among industry, academia and government in carrying out studies to better protect children," Shah added.
