Objective: to characterise the adverse drugs reactions (ADRs) reported in the Lombard and Croatian paediatric population and to compare data to specific paediatric age groups, in terms of trend, pattern and severity of ADRs, increasing understanding of paediatric ADRs.
Research design and methods: We selected and analysed all the spontaneous reports in which children were involved (0 < 18 years old) reported in the Lombardy and in Croatian pharmacovigilance databases from 1th March 2005 to 31th December 2013.
Results: 9175 ADR reports were reported in the Lombardy, 2457 were included in the Croatian database. The age groups most involved were 2-11 for both countries. The 13.2% and 40.3% of reports retrieved in Lombardy and Croatia were classified as serious, respectively. Fatalities account for 0.09% and 0.12% in Lombardy and Croatia, respectively.
Conclusion: Data on serious reports reflect a similar scenario in terms of age range; strikingly different therapeutic subgroups were involved in reporting activity likely due to greater self-medication practices with penicillins and anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretics drugs in Lombardy than in Croatia, highlighting the need to closely monitor this paediatric therapeutic area to ensure a safe use of these drugs.
Keywords: Adverse drug reaction; children; paediatrics; pharmacovigilance.