Neonatal and Pediatric Medicine
Open Access

Abstract

Despite the pharmaceutical products prescribed for Food and Drug Administration–approved indications, unlicensed drug uses may have deficiency of rigorous scientific scrutiny. Regardless of concerns about patient care and health care expenditure, little is known about the frequency of unlicensed drug use or the degree of scientific evidence supporting this practice. The current study was conducted to observe the practice of unlicensed drug prescribing practices in children and neonates in clinical settings of Karachi, Pakistan. A cross sectional study was conducted during Jan-May, 2018 in different health care setups. Health care practitioners were assessed for prescribing practice of unlicensed drug prescribing in children by requesting them to fill and submit the survey form. Multivariate analyses were used to identify drug-specific characteristics predictive of increased unlicensed drug use. The current study revealed that health care practitioners often used the practice of unlicensed drug prescribing in children. Majority of them considered that off label prescribing is safe if used with strong scientific research. Unlicensed drug use is common in patient care, and most occurs without scientific support. Efforts should be made to scrutinize under evaluated off-label prescribing that compromises patient safety or represents improvident medication use.

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