Rational prescribing challenges in paediatrics: A evidence based review

Irrational utilization of medications in paediatrics become very common in clinical practice due to many factors. It is very overcome the barriers of rational prescribing to increase positive therapeutic outcomes in paediatrics. This review explores, various factors like Paediatric ethics, unlicensed/ off-label use of medicines, unavailability of suitable formulations, administration difficulties, etc., that influence in the rational prescribing in the paediatric population:

In this review, Medline and PubMed searching engine used to extract the research articles from the year 1990 to 2019 related to rational prescribing in paediatrics. Totally 310 articles were identified and finally, 26 research articles selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Eight research articles concluded about irrationality in anti-biotic prescribing, five articles discussed on unlicensed/off-label use of medications. Three articles showed evidence for medication errors. Tow research articles discussed vaccine/medicine administration difficulties, paediatric ethics, management of rare diseases, utilization of orphan drugs, nutritional supplements respectively.

It is imperative to have the contribution of trained paediatric clinical pharmacologists to promote the rational use of medicine in children. Paediatric essential medicine list must be accessible to all the caregivers with patient education leaflets, by developing the orphan drug list and training the clinicians on how to utilize these medicines might be helpful to reduce irrationality.