Children poisoned by medications on rise

CINCINNATI, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- The number of children admitted to U.S. hospitals after taking a potentially toxic dose of medication rose dramatically in recent years, researchers say.

Dr. Randall Bond, an emergency medicine physician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, says exposure to prescription products accounted for most of the emergency visits at 55 percent, admissions at 76 percent and significant harm at 71 percent.

"The problem of pediatric medication poisoning is getting worse, not better," Bond says in a statement.

"Prevention efforts at home have been insufficient. We need to improve storage devices and child-resistant closures and perhaps require mechanical barriers, such as blister packs."

Bond studied patient records from 2001 to 2008 from the National Poison Data system -- an electronic database of all calls to members of the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

A total of 453,559 children age 5 and younger exposed to a potentially toxic dose of a single pharmaceutical agent, either prescription or over-the-counter, were involved in the study.

The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, says the most likely explanation is a rise in medications taken around small children.

A 1998 to 1999 indicates half of adults had taken at least one prescription medication in the preceding week and 7 percent had taken five or more. In 2006, the same survey indicates 55 percent had taken at least one prescription medication in the preceding week and 11 percent had taken five or more, the study says.