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Bridget M. Kuehn

JAMA. 2006;296:271.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Since 1997, as a result of 3 pieces of legislation, the labels of about 100 drugs marketed in the United States have been updated to include critical information about using the medications in children. In June, the European Union's parliament adopted similar legislation that will further promote pediatric drug research and provide more information about the effectiveness, dosing, and safety of various drugs in children.

These laws, heralded as breakthroughs for pediatric medicine, provide incentives and/or create requirements for drug companies to test their products in children and to update the medications' labels accordingly. The effort is helping redress a legacy of neglect in the area of pediatric pharmacology, which forced pediatricians to rely on data from drug trials in adults and then adjust doses based on weight.

(Photo credit: Mauro Fermariello/www.sciencesource.com)

But children are not physiologically "miniature adults," so this strategy has drawbacks. For . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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