Cold medicines adversely affect the child's psyche

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

American doctors are sounding the alarm - the treatment of colds in children with the help of certain medications leads to tragic consequences. The drugs Tamiflu and Relenza are especially suspicious.

The US Food and Drug Administration has determined that Tamiflu and Relenza, marketed as medicines for the common cold in children, cause hallucinations and seizures. The organization's officials insist that appropriate warnings appear on these drugs.

"People need to be aware of the possible side effects. I have never heard from patients that they receive an excess of information about drugs," says Dr. Michael Funt, professor of pediatrics at the University of Houston. and we do not have sufficient evidence yet."

During testing of Tamiflu, no adverse effects on humans were found. According to Roche, the symptoms observed in children may be caused by the flu itself. The FDA agrees with them in principle, but, nevertheless, recommends that if these symptoms occur, Tamiflu should be given to children for no more than 2 days and constantly consult a doctor.

Since Tamiflu went on sale, there have been 25 deaths in patients under the age of 21. Most of them happened in Japan. Five children died when they fell out of a window or balcony, or ran out onto the road.

Experts suspect the common cold medicine Relenza has similar dangerous properties. Although GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza drug did not cause death in patients, there is evidence that it causes the same neurological problems.

Exactly what causes such dire side effects has not yet been established, but next week a group of pediatric experts will conduct a study of both drugs.

Meanwhile, representatives of the company "F. Hoffmann-La Roche" said that they are constantly monitoring information about the safety of their drugs on the market. As a result of cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), changes were made to the instructions for use of the drug in the United States, which was supplemented with information about possible neuropsychiatric disorders in patients with influenza.

Although the influence of the drug on the development of such disorders has not been established, emphasize in F. Hoffmann-La Roche, the company works closely with the FDA to achieve maximum accuracy and completeness of the information provided in the instructions for medical use of the drug, so that prescribers, as well as children and their parents were aware of the possible manifestations of abnormal behavior in patients with influenza. The health of patients, the effectiveness and safety of their own drugs are the priorities in the company's activities, according to F. Hoffmann-La Roche. The company continues to monitor the safety of Tamiflu in accordance with the established procedure and notifies the regulatory health authorities of the identified cases of adverse reactions.

Abnormal reactions have been reported very rarely in patients taking oseltamivir. Influenza itself is a serious illness - up to 500 million people fall ill in the world every year, 2 million of whom die. Up to 41 million cases of the disease are registered in Russia every year. Fever, which is a characteristic symptom of influenza, can cause neurological and mental disorders, including hallucinations and delirium (impaired consciousness characterized by distorted reflection of reality, visual hallucinations, delusions, motor arousal, disorientation in place and time, and sometimes loss of memory).

In 2005, 103 cases of mental illness were reported during the treatment of influenza with Tamiflu, incl. five fatal cases. This is an extremely rare event in the total number of patients taking the drug during influenza season.

In none of these cases was Tamiflu taken as the cause of the reaction, experts at F. Hoffmann-La Roche report.

The largest number of reports of neuropsychiatric disorders were received from Japan and concern patients under 18 years of age. Most recent by F. Hoffmann-La Roche during the 2005/2006 influenza season. studies in Japan showed no difference in the incidence of neuropsychiatric disorders in influenza patients (including children) who took Tamiflu and those who did not receive treatment with this drug. And according to the United States, the frequency of mental disorders in patients taking Tamiflu is even lower than in those who did not take the drug.

Post-marketing research "F. Hoffmann-La Roche" showed that cases of neuropsychiatric abnormalities in patients taking Tamiflu are rare - approximately 100 cases per 1 million patients. Fatal reports are extremely rare - about 1 in every 5 million people treated for influenza. A causal relationship between these events and taking Tamiflu has not been established.