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. 2011 Sep;100(9):1272-5.
doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02287.x. Epub 2011 May 11.

Paediatric drug use with focus on off-label prescriptions in Swedish outpatient care--a nationwide study

J Olsson  1 , E Kimland, S Pettersson, V Odlind
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Paediatric drug use with focus on off-label prescriptions in Swedish outpatient care--a nationwide study

J Olsson et al. Acta Paediatr. 2011 Sep.
Free PMC article

Abstract

Aim: To determine drug prescription and proportion of off-label dispensing in the Swedish paediatric outpatient population.

Methods: All dispensed outpatient prescriptions to children aged 0 < 18 years as well as the proportion of off-label drug use during 2007 were analysed using data from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register.

Results: In total, 2.19 million drug prescriptions of 898 different drug substances were dispensed to paediatric patients, and of those substances, 64% had been dispensed off-label at least once. The overall off-label rate of all prescriptions was 13.5%, among which topical drugs as well as sex hormones were the most commonly prescribed off-label drugs. More than half of all children in Sweden had received at least one prescribed drug in 2007.

Conclusions: There is a high prescribing of medicines to children in outpatient care in Sweden with a considerable amount of off-label prescriptions. Topically administered drugs, sex hormones, antidepressants, hypnotics, cardiovascular drugs and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were commonly prescribed off-label.

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