Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2005 Jun;59(6):670-3.
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2005.02445.x.

How children's responses to drugs differ from adults

Affiliations
Review

How children's responses to drugs differ from adults

Terence Stephenson. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2005 Jun.

Abstract

Children are not small adults. However, the main thesis of this review will be that children's responses to drugs have much in common with the responses in adults and indeed in other mammals. Often, it is assumed that drug effects differ in children but in reality this perception often arises because the drugs have not been adequately studied in paediatric populations of different ages and with different diseases. There may also be difficulties in measuring small but significant effects because the outcome measures are more difficult to assess in children. In some cases, stage of development can alter the action of, and response to, a drug - a truly age-dependent difference in pharmacodynamics. This may be true of both the desired action and adverse events. Examples are given. Programming by drugs is also a phenomenon almost exclusive to early life, i.e. permanent effects result from a stimulus applied at a sensitive point in development ('critical window'), often in fetal or neonatal life. Again, examples are discussed. Different pathophysiology, different disease variants, different pharmacodynamics, different 'host' response and different adverse drug reactions can all explain why some drugs behave differently in children. However, we need to explore ways to avoid re-inventing the wheel by determining how data from adult animal and human models can help inform research and practice for children.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Protruding tongue of infant born with congenital hypothyroidism
Figure 2
Figure 2
The abundance of the different isoforms of prolactin receptor type1 in the perirenal adipose tissue of newborn lambs varies with age. 0 days (formula image), 28 days (formula image)

References

    1. Takahashi H, Ishikawa S, Nomoto S, Nishigaki Y, Ando F, Kashima T, Kimura S, Kanamori M, Echizen H. Developmental changes in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of warfarin enantiomers in Japanese children. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2000;68:541–55. - PubMed
    1. Marshall JD, Kearns GL. Developmental pharmacodynamics of cyclosporine. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1999;66:66–75. - PubMed
    1. MacKenzie C. Effects of inhaled corticosteroids on growth. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1998;101:451–5. - PubMed
    1. Agertoft L, Pedersen S. Effect of long-term treatment with inhaled budesonide on adult height in children with asthma. N Engl J Med. 2000;343:1064–9. - PubMed
    1. Dodic M, Hantzis V, Duncan J, Rees S, Koukoulas I, Johnson K, Wintour EM, Moritz K. Programming effects of short prenatal exposure to cortisol. FASEB J. 2002;16:1017–26. - PubMed