Drug safety
-
Safety concerns regarding potential life-threatening adverse events associated with codeine have resulted in policy decisions to restrict its use in pediatrics. However, whether these drug safety communications have had an immediate and strong impact on codeine use remains in question. ⋯ Our study provides a successful example of how to effectively reduce the codeine prescriptions in children in the 'real-world' settings, and highlights areas where future effort could be made to improve the safety use of codeine. Future research is warranted to explore whether there was a simultaneous decrease in the incidence rates of codeine-related adverse events following the safety-related regulations.