An age-old dilemma
Life would be so much easier for parents, doctors and drug companies if children were nothing more than smaller versions of adults.
Life would be so much easier for parents, doctors and drug companies if children were nothing more than smaller versions of adults.
Certainly they suffer many of the same conditions, including some cancers, autistic spectrum disorders, obesity, digestive disorders and depression, but to date the only treatment for many of these illnesses has been a 'suck-it-and-see' approach of reducing the adult dose proportionate to the child's age and bodyweight.
Unfortunately, a child's growth is not a steady progression with reliable, predictable stages, nor do all children develop physically at the same rate. What may be a suitable dose for one child may be too low or too high for another child - even one of of the same age and size - whose central nervous system or digestive tract is more or less advanced than the average.
And faced with a suffering child and an anxious parent, who can blame the medical professional for taking the view that doing something - no matter how hit-and-miss - is preferable to doing nothing.
It is ironic that the entry into force of the EU's Paediatric Regulation at the end of January came at the same time as further revelations by an investigative documentary programme in the UK about the use of the antidepressant Seroxat (Paxil in the US) in under-18s.
This time the argument does not centre on the rights and wrongs of prescribing SSRIs to young adults in the absence of anything more suitable. Nor does it concern a lack of data regarding the effects of the drug on children.
The latest allegation is that GlaxoSmithKline had carried out trials in the US that revealed not only lack of efficacy but also adverse side-effects. These results, the programme said, were concealed and a misleading impression given about the drug's effectiveness and safety in children - a suggestion that GSK denies.
A criminal investigation into GSK was begun three years ago by the UK's Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) but no action has been taken as yet.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of this case eventually prove to be, it is some consolation that at least procedures are now in place in the EU to reduce the uncertainty of giving adult medicines to children and to encourage the development of therapeutics tailored to certain age groups.
Better late than never, I suppose.