Off-Label Drug Use in Pediatrics

The issue of the use of prescribed drugs for off-label among children is a common phenomenon that is common. One of the circumstances that could call for this is the issues of lack of standards that need to be followed for the drugs while prescribing it for children. The other circumstance is the issues of lack of licensed individuals to carry out the process of the issues of lack of an effective and safe therapeutic option that could be opted for. This is attributed to the fact that there could be risks of a lack of options for therapeutic medication for children for treating certain health issues. Panther et al. (2017) add that the occurrence of this case could be attributed to the inconsistencies in the information in SmPC on children.

As a healthcare provider, one must take into account the need for strategies to make the off-label use and dosage of drugs safer for children. Corny et al. (2015) depict that it could be challenging to be able to eliminate the issue of the use of unlicensed and off label drugs for children. However, the issue could be eliminated by the implementation of the electronic medical records for the process of passage of information to the patients or on the off label unlicensed drugs. There is a need as well for the enhancement of the process of sharing information between the different jurisdictions on the different drugs. The process will be instrumental in allowing for the healthcare providers to be able to learn of the information and the experience of the others. There is a need as well for the enhancement of research on the issue of off label and unlicensed drugs for children to avoid issues of consideration of the guidelines that are there for the adults.

References

Corny, J., Lebel, D., Bailey, B., & Bussières, J. F. (2015). Unlicensed and off-label drug use in children before and after pediatric governmental initiatives. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 20(4), 316-328.

Panther, S. G., Knotts, A. M., Odom-Maryon, T., Daratha, K., Woo, T., & Klein, T. A. (2017). Off-label prescribing trends for ADHD medications in very young children. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 22(6), 423-429.