Understanding and reducing the risk of adverse drug reactions in pediatric patients

Developmental pharmacology influences the safety profile of drugs in pediatrics. Altered pharmacokinetics and/or pharmacodynamics of drugs make pediatric patients susceptible to adverse drug reactions (ADRs), especially infants and newborns. Since the efficacy/safety balance of most available drugs has not been formally evaluated in pediatric clinical trials, optimal dosing is rarely known in pediatrics. Sub-optimal pediatric drug formulations make dose optimization even more difficult exposing pediatric patients to medication errors like overdosing and associated ADRs. We provide an overview of pediatric ADRs and discuss recent regulatory and pharmacological measures to understand and reduce risk of ADRs in pediatric patients.