Over the Counter Doesn’t Mean Safe
PARENTAL USE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS A RISK TO CHILDREN
A study has found that widespread use of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines by parents for fever, coughs and colds places children at serious risk resulting in a larger number of calls to poison centers and more hospital admissions. Researchers discovered that many parents in the study felt that if a drug was available without a prescription, it must be safe to give to children even in double dosages.
Of the 119,000 poison control calls surveyed, 48 percent concerned accidental overdose in children, with 15 percent needing hospitalization.
Over 85 percent of all calls regarding accidental overdose in children involved those under five, with almost 80 percent of incidents involving those under age three.
Only 14 percent of parents made the correct call when dealing with a child’s fever.
“It is vital that parents worldwide should understand the proper usage of medicines so that they do not continue to put their children’s health at risk,” said the study leader. This study was presented Monday, August 30, 2010 at the annual conference of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) in Lisbon, Portugal.
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