Systematic review of paediatric studies of adverse drug reactions from pharmacovigilance databases

To perform a systematic review of studies describing paediatric adverse drug reactions (ADRs) conducted from national pharmacovigilance databases.

A systematic literature search of studies describing results for paediatric ADRs from national pharmacovigilance databases was performed. PubMed database, Embase and MEDLINE were searched up to March 2015. The descriptive studies included were analysed for country of origin, reporters, and ADR reporting rate, drugs, ADRs and number of fatalities.

20 studies were identified. Doctors were the largest group of reporters in all the studies, and with more consumer reports seen in USA. The studies ranged from 3 - 37 years. The highest ADR reporting rate was 1458 reports per year per million children in Cuba. Antibiotics and vaccines were the most frequently reported drugs, in almost all the studies. The most frequent ADRs were skin and nervous system disorders. The highest proportion of fatalities and serious reports was from North America. Drugs used for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) and isotretinoin were the most frequently reported drugs for ADRs in North America.

There were geographical differences in drugs responsible for ADRs and their seriousness, especially in North America. Very few studies were conducted in Asia and Latin America, none were found from Africa.