Shortage of children’s pain meds linked to surge in dosing errors: report
Global News
Between August and December 2022, Canada had a scarcity of pediatric acetaminophen and ibuprofen due to a spike in respiratory illnesses, prompting some to use adult meds instead.
The shortage of pain medication for infants and children in late 2022 contributed to a more than 50 per cent surge in calls around dosing errors within Canadian households, a new report found.
The Canadian report, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found the shortage of children’s pain medication contributed to a “large increase in calls” to a poison control centre related to both acetaminophen and ibuprofen dosing errors.
“We found that there was an over doubling of the number of calls that were made to the Ontario Poison Centre related to dosing errors, related to the administration of medications for fever and pain for children, specifically, acetaminophen or Tylenol; and ibuprofen, commonly known as Advil or Motrin,” said Dr. Eyal Cohen, co-author of the report and a physician in pediatric medicine at SickKids in Toronto.
“It was surprising that we saw a real risk of harm to children related to the shortages that occurred during that period of time,” he added.
Between August and December 2022, Canada had a scarcity of pediatric acetaminophen and ibuprofen due to the resurgence of respiratory illnesses, as the pandemic eased and kids started going back to school. In response, hospitals and medical professionals issued alternative guidance, including giving adult pain medication based on children’s weight and age.
“There was guidance issued about how to divide adult doses, and we figured that if it was challenging for us to figure out what kind of drugs we should be giving to our kids and how to divide those doses, that must be a much larger problem for the general population,” Dr. Jonathan Zipursky, a co-author on the study and a clinical pharmacologist and toxicologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
The report, called ‘Pediatric Dosing Errors during a National Shortage of Fever and Pain Medications’ looked at the monthly number of phone calls from parents and hospitals to the Ontario Poison Centre (OPC) for unintentional acetaminophen and ibuprofen dosing errors between Jan. 1, 2018, and Feb. 28, 2023, among children aged 18 and younger.
The OPC covers the province of Manitoba and the territory of Nunavut as well.
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