Doctors may not be surprised to hear this, but at least one drug was used off-label in 78 percent of the patients in pediatric hospitals, according to a study in the latest issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine (abstract only).

Moreover, the sickest children and those undergoing surgery were most likely to be given a drug for an unapproved use. The retrospective study examined 90 commonly used drugs ranging from ibuprofen and morphine to dopamine and albuterol. And the researchers reviewed records of 355,409 patients treated at 31 children’s hospitals in 2004.

“This issue of off-label drug use in children is a huge problem,” Samir Shah, the study’s lead author and infectious-disease doctor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, tells The Philadelphia Inquirer. “We don’t know whether in the absence of off-label use there would have been fewer deaths or more deaths. I suspect that in many instances the drugs were beneficial and in a smaller number of cases the drugs were harmful.”

This is exactly the sort of info that should be better understood, though. The FDA just disclosed plans to study over-the-counter cough and cold meds. The agency should take a closer look at this issue, too, and talk to drugmakers about undertaking some research.

Maybe Grandma was right - at least cod liver oil won’t kill you.

[tags]Off-Label Use[/tags]