Opioid Prescribing and Potential Overdose Errors Among Children 0 to 36 Months Old

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William T Basco1, Myla Ebeling2, Sandra S Garner2

  • 1Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA bascob@musc.edu.

Clinical Pediatrics
|May 15, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Opioid prescriptions for young children frequently contain potentially dangerous overdose quantities. This study found 2.7% of outpatient opioid prescriptions for children 0-36 months exceeded safe dosing, particularly in infants.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric pharmacology
  • Medication safety
  • Public health

Background:

  • Opioid medications are frequently prescribed for outpatient use in children.
  • Accurate dosing is critical for pediatric patient safety, especially for potent medications like opioids.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the prevalence of potential overdose errors in outpatient opioid prescriptions for young children.
  • To identify risk factors associated with these potential overdose errors.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 11 years of outpatient Medicaid prescription data.
  • Comparison of dispensed opioid dose against expected dose based on imputed weights.
  • Definition of potential overdose as >110% of the expected dose.

Main Results:

  • 59,536 opioid prescriptions for children aged 0-36 months were analyzed.
  • 2.7% of these prescriptions contained potential overdose quantities, with an average excess of 48%.
  • Infants aged 0-2 months had the highest frequency (8.9%) of potential overdoses.

Conclusions:

  • Outpatient opioid prescriptions for infants and young children often contain potentially excessive quantities.
  • Younger age is a significant risk factor for potential opioid overdoses in this population.
Abstract

Keywords:
childchildrenmedication errorsoverdosepatient safety

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