Study: Drug Samples Possibly Dangerous For Kids
(New York, NY) -- A new study finds free drug samples sometimes handed out by doctors can pose serious health risks to children. Free samples are a marketing tool drug companies use to get doctors to embrace medicines new to the market. The "New York Times" reports the study analyzing a 2004 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found more than 500-thousand kids were given samples of four drugs that were later found to be potentially dangerous. The Food and Drug Administration now requires safety warnings for the asthma drug Advair, the eczema drug Elidel and the attention deficit disorder drugs Adderall and Strattera. However, those warning labels were not included when early samples were first passed down from drug makers to doctors to patients.
The study also found children without health insurance are more likely to get free drug samples when they go to the doctor than insured children. Doctor Sarah Cutrona, the lead author of the study, says more research on the possible risks of drug samples are needed. She believes the findings could lead doctors to stop using them completely. The study appears Monday in the journal "Pediatrics." |