Drug Toxicity and Adverse Drug Reactions in Children - A Brief Historical Review

AbstractDrug toxicity in association with adverse drug reactions is common in hospitalisedchildren. The toxicity of medicines in children is different to that seen in adults.There are also differences between different age groups of paediatric patientswith neonates being generally at greater risk for experiencing a drug-associatedadverse event. The major examples of drug toxicity that have occurred inpaediatric patients are reviewed ranging from percutaneous toxicity over 100years ago to formulation errors and toxicity associated with normal,developmental alterations in drug metabolism . The need to learn from previouscases of drug toxicity to prevent future cases is paramount. Paed Perinatal Drug Ther 2002; 5: 12– 18 Key words: Drug toxicity – drug metabolism – children Introduction Adverse drug reactions ( ADRs ) are commonclinical problems in both paediatric and adultmedicine. Over 9% of hospitalised children haveadverse reactions to therapy and up to 4% of allhospital admissions are the consequence of ADRs