quarta-feira, 8 de dezembro de 2010

OTCs

Instruções confusas em embalagens de muitos medicamentos para crianças isentos de prescrição


[parte de matéria publicada em DRUGS.COM, em 30/11/2010, originalmente mantida em Inglês]

The admonishment to parents to carefully follow the directions on the labels of over-the-counter kids' medicines may be futile, new research suggests. The study found that most of the popular cough-and-cold, pain-relieving, allergy and stomach drugs just don't explain dosing very well to begin with. Nor is there much consistency in product labeling.
"Almost all the products had inconsistencies," said Dr. H. Shonna Yin, lead author of an early-release study that will be published in the Dec. 15 print issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This is a real issue," added Dr. G. Randall Bond, medical director of the Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. But he also pointed out that while "a large number of emergency visits are related to [over-the-counter medications], very few of those are related to misdosing. Most of the time it's kids who got into the medicine. That's the real driver."

The study comes almost exactly a year after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued voluntary guidelines recommending that manufacturers of common over-the-counter medications be more consistent in their dosing directions and include measuring devices with the products, among other suggestions. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which represents these manufacturers, also issued voluntary guidelines.

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