# 4850
From the International Pharmaceutical Federation’s (FIP) conference in Lisbon, Portugal (Aug 28th-Sept 2nd), an illuminating press release on a paper to be presented today on the widespread parental misuse of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines for children.
A research team led by Dr. Rebekah Moles of the University of Sydney, New South Wales, reports that the inappropriate use, and incorrect dosing of OTC meds lead to a large number of accidental drug poisonings each year.
Running through a variety of scenarios, nearly 100 adult caregivers were asked to decide what OTC medicines were appropriate for a child given their symptoms, and asked to measure out an appropriate dose.
A brief excerpt from the press release outlining the abysmal results follows. By all means, click the link to read it in its entirety.
Widespread parental misuse of medicines puts children at risk
(Excerpt)
Common OTC medicines were made available, together with different types of dosing devices, including household spoons. Participants then chose whether or not to give a medicine, at what stage, and at what dose. They were asked to measure the dose for the researchers. Because doses for children are often small, the risk of getting the measurement wrong is greatly increased, the researchers say.
"Taking all the scenarios together, 44% of participants would have given an incorrect dose, and only 64% were able to measure accurately the dose they intended to give. We found that 15% of participants would give a medicine without taking their child's temperature, and 55% would give medicine when the temperature was less than 38 degrees", said Dr. Moles. Paracetamol was the preferred treatment, even for coughs and cold, and was used most often – 61% of the time – despite the child having no fever. Only 14% of carers managed the fever scenario correctly.
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