Parents are being kept in the dark about the risks and side effects of drugs that doctors prescribe to their children. And doctors still stay silent even when the child suffers a reaction to the drug.
As a result, parents often don’t know whether to stop treatment or to carry on giving the drug, even though their child is reacting to it.
Part of the problem, say researchers from Liverpool University, is that doctors and nurses aren’t sure themselves when to tell parents about a drug’s dangers. They aren’t given a framework or guidelines about how or when to talk about adverse drug reactions.
The one exception is in cancer care, where doctors talk through options and possible reactions to chemotherapy and other cancer drugs.
(Source: PLoS ONE, 2012; 7: e46022).
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