Intravenous Administration: Frequent Errors.
Intravenous administration: frequent errors.
Prescrire Int. 2013 Feb; 22(135): 46
A prospective study conducted in Australia examined the errors made by 107 nurses during 568 intravenous drug administrations in hospitals. About 100 administrations had at least one serious error; most were administration rate errors. HubMed – drug
Injectable paracetamol in children: yet more cases of 10-fold overdose.
Prescrire Int. 2013 Feb; 22(135): 44-5
Intravenous paracetamol injection is associated with a risk of 10-fold overdose. This is due to confusion between normal dose prescription in milligrams and administration in millilitres of injectable solution (containing 10 mg per ml). Reports of overdose show that the consequences can be severe, due to the hepatic toxicity of paracetamol, which may be fatal if the error is not detected rapidly enough for antidote (acetylcysteine) administration. In practice, injectable paracetamol should only be prescribed when oral administration is not possible. Care must be taken when calculating the dose to be administered, and the calculation must be double checked before the drug is administered. HubMed – drug
SSRI antidepressants: altered psychomotor development following exposure in utero?
Prescrire Int. 2013 Feb; 22(135): 43-4
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants (SSRIs) are sometimes prescribed to pregnant women. The potential consequences for the unborn child are gradually becoming clearer. In a case-control study of 298 children with autism and 1507 controls, 6.7% of mothers of autistic children had been prescribed an antidepressant during the year before delivery, compared to 3.3% of control mothers. The antidepressant was usually an SSRI. A dozen other small epidemiological studies of neurological development in children exposed to antidepressants in utero have provided mixed results. Two of these studies suggested a risk of psychomotor retardation. In practice, SSRI antidepressants should only be considered for pregnant women when non-drug measures fail and when symptoms are sufficiently serious to warrant drug therapy. HubMed – drug