Hospitalizations due to drug poisoning in under-five-year-old children in Brazil, 2003-2012.

OBJECTIVE

to describe hospitalizations due to drug poisonings in children under five years old, in Brazil, from 2003 to 2012.

METHODS

descriptive study, with data from the National Hospital Information System (SIH/SUS); the drugs involved were divided into therapeutic classes, according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification (ATC).

RESULTS

17,725 hospitalizations were identified, from which 22,395 poisonings were identified, and 75 deaths; the most common therapeutic classes were unspecified drugs (38.0%), antiepileptic/sedative-hypnotics/anti-parkinson drugs (19.8%), systemic antibiotics (13.4%) and non-opioid-analgesics/antipyretics (6.5%), varying among country regions and age groups; in 38.5% of the poisonings it was not possible to correlate therapeutic classes and ATC categories.

CONCLUSION

the high frequency of unspecified drugs was a limitation; among the specified drugs, the most common were those that act in the central nervous system and those used in pediatric diseases (antibiotics and analgesics).