FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Volume 357:2321-2324 December 6, 2007 Number 23 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text PDF PDA Full Text Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited E-mail When Letters Appear PubMed Citation

In recent weeks, over-the-counter cough and cold medications for children have received unprecedented attention from regulators, physicians, the media, and parents. This scrutiny represents a long-overdue reassessment of products that were purchased by 39% of U.S. households during the past 3 years.¹ It also reflects an important evolution in the standard of evidence for medications used in children.

Over-the-counter cough and cold preparations include various combinations of antihistamines, decongestants, antitussives, and expectorants. There is no standard for describing these products; two products marketed similarly may have different types of ingredients (see table). Consumers purchase about 95 million packages of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Dr. Sharfstein is the commissioner of health for Baltimore; Ms. North is a medical student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore; and Dr. Serwint is a professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore. The authors are the lead signers of the petition to the FDA on over-the-counter cough and cold medications.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Shefrin, A. E., Goldman, R. D. (2009). Use of over-the-counter cough and cold medications in children. cfp 55: 1081-1083 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Clavenna, A, Bonati, M (2009). Adverse drug reactions in childhood: a review of prospective studies and safety alerts. Arch. Dis. Child. 94: 724-728 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Vernacchio, L., Kelly, J. P., Kaufman, D. W., Mitchell, A. A. (2009). Medication Use Among Children <12 Years of Age in the United States: Results From the Slone Survey. Pediatrics 124: 446-454 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lokker, N., Sanders, L., Perrin, E. M., Kumar, D., Finkle, J., Franco, V., Choi, L., Johnston, P. E., Rothman, R. L. (2009). Parental Misinterpretations of Over-the-Counter Pediatric Cough and Cold Medication Labels. Pediatrics 123: 1464-1471 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Sturkenboom, M. C J M, Verhamme, K. M C, Nicolosi, A., Murray, M. L, Neubert, A., Caudri, D., Picelli, G., Sen, E. F., Giaquinto, C., Cantarutti, L., Baiardi, P., Felisi, M.-G., Ceci, A., Wong, I. C K, on behalf of the TEDDY European Network of Excelle, (2008). Drug use in children: cohort study in three European countries. BMJ 337: a2245-a2245 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Rimsza, M. E., Newberry, S. (2008). Unexpected Infant Deaths Associated With Use of Cough and Cold Medications. Pediatrics 122: e318-e322 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Vernacchio, L., Kelly, J. P., Kaufman, D. W., Mitchell, A. A. (2008). Cough and Cold Medication Use by US Children, 1999-2006: Results From the Slone Survey. Pediatrics 122: e323-e329 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Schaefer, M. K., Shehab, N., Cohen, A. L., Budnitz, D. S. (2008). Adverse Events From Cough and Cold Medications in Children. Pediatrics 121: 783-787 [Abstract] [Full Text]