Farmacologia pediátrica: uma revisão sobre a importância do farmacêutico clínico na farmacoterapia infantil.

Abstract

Pediatric pharmacology is the science that studies medications and the aspects related to them in the child population. Due to the immaturity of the physiological system, children have their own pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic mechanisms, which interfere with drug choice, dosage regimen and pharmaceutical form. For ethical, legal and economic reasons, there are few clinical trials in children, which highlights the uncertainty of drug efficacy for this group. Therefore, the use of medicines in children is based on extrapolations of the use in adults. This work aimed to review the literature on pediatric pharmacology, highlighting the importance of the clinical pharmacist to achieve success in infant pharmacotherapy. The research was carried out in electronic databases and search portals, prioritizing published materials in the annual range from 2008 to 2018. We found 215 materials, after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the final sample included 60 materials including articles scientific, monographs, theses, dissertations and books. Brazil stands out for the high indexes of drug intoxications, mainly affecting the pediatric population. Children can not be treated as "small adults", therefore, the clinical pharmacist plays a crucial role in pediatric pharmacotherapy, and their participation as an integral part of the health team is essential, and pharmacotherapeutic monitoring is necessary to reduce undesirable effects in the choice of the most appropriate pharmaceutical form and dosage adjustment, improving pharmacotherapy, guaranteeing patient safety and quality of life.