Around 68,000 children in the US alone need emergency hospital treatment every year after taking a prescription drug – but, astonishingly, doctors believe our children should be taking more.
Doctors at London’s King’s College and St George’s Hospital want to increase the children’s dosage for drugs such as penicillin – because the average size and weight of children has increased since the 1950s when the safe dose was set.
The dose for penicillin for children has been revised twice since then – but the researchers believe they may still be getting a dose that is not effective.
Even the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which represents the drug industry, cautions that basing dosage on weight, instead of age, is problematic, and could be risky.
As the 68,000 children who end up in hospital have usually taken just one pill, they could have a point.
(Source: British Medical Journal, 2011; 343: d7803).
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