[Peculiarities of drug therapy in childhood]

Abstract

The age of the patient is one of the major determinants of drug efficacy due to certain anatomical, physiological, biochemical and behavioral characteristics of different age groups of the pediatric population. Qualitative and quantitative differences in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs should be considered before dosage regimens can be established. Differences may occur in each age group, but may be even greater in newborns. Nevertheless, the maturation from the newborn towards adulthood proceeds through a continuum and thus involves also other age groups. Pediatricians are aware of this situation. But only for a small fraction of drugs used in newborns and infants clinical-pharmacological data are available, and drug instructions often contain disclaimer statements against the use in children. In pediatric intensive care units newborns and infants often receive drugs which have not been evaluated before within this age group. According to epidemiological data it has to be assumed that 30% of neonates in neonatal care units develop adverse side effects, which may originate from the drug itself or from drug interactions. Drug trials are completed or underway when new approaches to therapeutic interventions are developed for pediatric disease states. Examples for the development of new therapeutic interventions are for instance the use of theophylline for the prevention of apnoes in prematures, the use of indomethacin for the closure of a patent ductus arteriosus, or the specific advances of cancer chemotherapy in childhood. However, there is no doubt that a complete interplay between clinical, ethical and legal aspects renders the task of studying the effects of drugs in children more difficult than in the case of adults.