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cough & cold medication
See cold & flu self-care kit Contrandications:
- OTC cough & cold medications not effective for children, thus not recommended
- use of cough & cold medications containing opioids limited to adults [3]
Adverse effects:
- 5.7% of ED visits associated with adverse drug events in children < 12 years) from cough & cold medications; most visits (64%) involve preschoolers (2-5 years); 2/3 for unsupervised ingestions; 26% for supervised administration without medication error; 8% for supervised administration with documented error; 7% of children require hospital admission
- adverse events most commonly in children < 4 years of age from OTC cough & cold medications [2]
- most commonly accidental unsupervised ingestion in home
- brompheniramine, chlorpheniramine, dextromethorphan, diphenhydramine, doxylamine, guaifenesin, pseudoephedrine, & phenylephrine implicated in some cases
- diphenhydramine was the most common medication involved in unsupervised ingestions (63%) [2]
- dextromethorphan most commonly involved in medication dosing errors (60%)
- common adverse events:
- tachycardia, somnolence, hallucinations, ataxia, mydriasis, agitation [2]
- 0.6% of cases fatal [2] (20 cases total)
- prescription opioids involved in 6 of 20 fatal cases [2]
Related
antitussive agent
decongestant
expectorant
Specific
chlophedianol/pseudoephedrine (Clofera)
General
pharmaceutical agent
References
- Schaefer MK et al.
Adverse events from cough and cold medications in children.
Pediatrics 2008 Jan 30; [e-pub ahead of print]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2007-3638
- Green JL, Wang GS, Reynolds KM et al.
Safety profile of cough and cold medication use in pediatrics.
Pediatrics. 2017 May 4. pii: e20163070
PMID: 28562262
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2017/05/02/peds.2016-3070
- FDA News Release. Jan 11, 2018
FDA acts to protect kids from serious risks of opioid ingredients
contained in some prescription cough and cold products by
revising labeling to limit pediatric use.
https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm592109.htm