Medicines in schools: a cross-sectional survey of children, parents, teachers and health professionals.

Objectives: To describe how individual schools manage medicines and strategies for implementation of guidance, to determine the nature of problems perceived by children, parents, teachers and healthcare professionals (HCPs) in relation to medicines management in schools and to highlight differences between these perceptions.

Design: A cross-sectional survey study in which questionnaires were completed by children, their parents and carers, groups of HCPs and head teachers.

Results: There were 158 respondents to this survey.

A pilot randomised controlled trial to assess the utility of an e-learning package that trains users in adverse drug reaction causality.

Objectives: Causality assessment of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by healthcare professionals is often informal which can lead to inconsistencies in practice. The Liverpool Causality Assessment Tool (LCAT) offers a systematic approach. An interactive, web-based, e-learning package, the Liverpool ADR Causality Assessment e-learning Package (LACAeP), was designed to improve causality assessment using the LCAT.

Clinical coding of prospectively identified paediatric adverse drug reactions--a retrospective review of patient records.

Background: National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in the UK use a system of coding for patient episodes. The coding system used is the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10). There are ICD-10 codes which may be associated with adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and there is a possibility of using these codes for ADR surveillance.

Adverse drug reactions and off-label and unlicensed medicines in children: a nested case-control study of inpatients in a pediatric hospital.

Background: Off-label and unlicensed (OLUL) prescribing has been prevalent in pediatric practice. Using data from a prospective cohort study of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) among pediatric inpatients, we aimed to test the hypothesis that OLUL status is a risk factor for ADRs.

Methods: A nested case?control study was conducted within a prospective cohort study.

Incidence, characteristics and risk factors of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized children - a prospective observational cohort study of 6,601 admissions.

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are an important cause of harm in children. Current data are incomplete due to methodological differences between studies: only half of all studies provide drug data, incidence rates vary (0.6% to 16.

Adverse drug reactions and off-label and unlicensed medicines in children: a prospective cohort study of unplanned admissions to a paediatric hospital.

Aims: To examine the impact of off-label and unlicensed (OLUL) prescribing on adverse drug reactions (ADRs) causing unplanned admissions to a paediatric hospital.

Methods: Prescription data from a 12 month prospective cohort study of ADRs detected in children admitted to a paediatric hospital were scrutinized. The relative risk for off-label and unlicensed medicines being implicated in an ADR was calculated.