Published 7 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3210
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3210

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More effort needed to prevent unintentional drug poisoning in children

David Spurgeon

1 Quebec

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The rate of unintentional poisoning from drugs among US residents aged 18 and younger is twice that caused by non-pharmaceutical consumer products (9.2 compared with 4.2 emergency visits per 10 000 a year), a study has found (American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2009, doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2009.05.018).

Drug use among outpatients is increasingly common in the United States, with 82% of adults and 56% of children taking at least one drug every week, says the study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Use of multiple medications has also increased, with the prevalence of use of five or more medications among adults rising from 22% to 31% between 2000 and 2004," it says.

Although the number of calls to poison control centres for exposure to drugs among children under 5 has declined, overall the proportion of calls relating to children rose from 34% to 44% between 2002 and . . . [Full text of this article]


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