Unlicensed and off label drug use for paediatric patients

BMJ 1998;317:204 ( 18 July )

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Unlicensed and off label drug use for paediatric patients

General practitioners prescribe SSRIs to children off label

Optimal dosing schedules with gentamicin are needed for premature neonates

General practitioners prescribe SSRIs to children off label

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EDITOR $---$ Turner et al highlight the fact that children admitted to hospital are often prescribed unlicensed drugs and drugsgiven outside the terms of their product licence (off label).¹The appropriateness of such prescribing is uncertain, and a highrate of adverse drug reactions has been observed in children prescribedsuch drugs.² The problem is not limited to hospitals. General practitioners may be asked to prescribe unlicensed or off labeldrugs by specialists or may consider initiating such treatmentthemselves. Little information exists on the extent of such prescribingin primary care.

We examined the prescribing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors to children in general practice by accessing a computerised database of 100 British general practices (349 doctors) usingthe AAH Meditel System 5 computer system to enter medical records(Doctors Independent Network).³ We determined the number of children aged 12 and under who had at least one prescription fora selective serotonin . . . [Full text of this article]

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Unlicensed and off label drug use in paediatric wards: prospective study: Sean Turner, Alexandra Longworth, Anthony J Nunn, and Imti Choonara
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