Codeine is not safe, especially for children, according to the Anerican Academy of Pediatrics.
The organization issued a statement discouraging parents and pediatricians to stop giving kids under 18 years old prescription and over-the-couter medicines that contain codeine, like cough syrups and painkillers.
Dr. Joseph Tobias, one of the study’s lead authors, said that,
People have this very false misconception about codeine, thinking that it’s safer than other opioids.
He added that the intention of their study was to educate healthcare providers and put pressure on regulatory boards to pull medicines for children that contain codeine off the market.
In an article in thhe October issue of the journal Pediatrics, US researchers found that codeine was associated with rare but dangerous and possibly fatal breathing reactions in children, prompting the AAP to release their statement, Huffington Post reports. The study also brought focus on US Food and Drug Administration information on the harmful effects of codeine, as well as the combination of codeine and acetaminophen drugs. These effects included 64 cases of severe respiratory diseases and 24 deaths linked to codeine, 21 of which occurred in children under 12 years old. The study looked at a 50-year period.
Codeine is still sold in over-the-couter medications like cough suppressants. According to the AAP, 800,000 children were prescribed codeine from 2007 to 2011.
Doctors specializing in ear, nose and throat problems were the most likely to prescribe the drug, with 19.6% of the 800,000 prescriptions given by these specialists. Dentists were nest, at 13.3%.
Codeine is what is referred to as a “prodrug,” meaning it needs the human body to be active in order to work. When people ingest codeine, liver enzymes transform the drug into a morphine-derivative to dull pain. But no two people are alike and for others, the enzyme goes into overdrive, creating too much of the morphine-derivative — this in turn slows down breathing and can even lead to death.
But for some people, the liver does not produce enough of the enzyme so codeine has no effect on them. Codeine is unique in that it can only work in this specific manner.
Children have less capabilities to metabolize codeine because the enzyme changes as the body ages and matures. The study authors encouraged parents and pediatricians to look for other pain medications instead, such as Tylenol, Ibuprofen or Motrin.
