This should interest all parents.
According to a recent review in the journal, Pediatrics,
that investigated the use of medications in kids, research has shown that the off-label
drugs in which a particular drug has only been approved for use in adults makes
up nearly 80 percent of the drugs to kids in hospitals and up to 56 percent of the
drugs prescribed for kids in doctors' offices.
In other words, although these drugs have not been studied
enough (many not studied at all) in kids (often, interestingly, because of
ethical worries about using such drugs in kids), they are still prescribed
heavily for children, with the rationale that “Hey, we don’t really have
anything else for a kid, and besides, a kid is simply a small adult, right?”
No, a child is not simply a small adult (although many
adults are still small children, of course).
And that may be especially true for medications.
As an example, drugs widely used for ADHD treatments are
stimulants when used in adults, they act to calm kids with ADHD.
All drugs that need to be used in kids should have been
tested for efficacy and safety in that population and if a particular drug that
you’re being advised to give to your kid hasn’t been studied in that manner, be
very careful about using it.
Start by asking lots of questions about why it’s necessary
to use that drug, and you’ll be quite pleasantly surprised, I think, about how
often a “must-use” drug becomes a “well, maybe-it’s-not-necessary” medication.
And hey, your kid will be even more pleasantly surprised
than you when that occurs.
