Análise das internações hospitalares de crianças menores de um ano relacionadas a intoxicações e efeitos adversos de medicamentos no Brasil

Abstract

The widespread use of drugs without medical prescription, nearly always ignoring the adverse effects they can cause, is the main cause for human intoxications registered in Brazil. Children are the greatest victims of the practice of self-medication due to the lack of appropriate studies on safe use of medicines in this age group, errors linked to the inappropriate delivery of medicines, besides the fact that the natural curiosity due to their age leads to accidental ingestion. The purpose of this study is to identify the main therapeutic classes responsible for drug intoxications or adverse events related to the hospitalization of children under one year old, registered by the Hospital Information System of the Unified Health System in the years 2003-2005. A total of 1.063 hospitalizations were analyzed, 151 of them involving children aged less than one month and 912 children aged 1-11 months. Sedative-hypnotics were responsible for 15.2% of hospitalizations related to drug intoxication and adverse effects in children under one month of age and for 21.2% of such events in children aged 1-11 months. Antibiotics responded for 12.6% and 18.9% of hospitalizations for the same age groups, respectively. Analgesics /antipyretics had a smaller participation, with 7.3% of hospitalizations in the group under 1 month and 6.7% in the group aged 1-11 months. A great number of cases has been observed on zero day old children, leading us to consider possible intoxications through placenta or nursing. Therefore the study shows the importance of a good pre-natal care, as well as the extra attention required when drugs are prescribed to both mother and child.