Using medication in children’s palliative care

Abstract

Using medication in children’s palliative care (CPC) is fraught with difficulties as a result of an insufficient evidence-base and a lack of child friendly formulations, however this cannot be a reason not to intervene and allow unnecessary suffering. A lack of access in some countries to even essential medicines such as opioids is an infringement of the rights of the child to pain relief and needs urgent redress. Often, the only reasonable option is to extrapolate from adult data and to proceed rationally on the basis of what the prescriber knows about the available drug, the individual child, and the likely effects of their disease. Alternative routes for administration of medicines in children who are no longer able to use the oral route, such as the trans- and sub-cutaneous and buccal route mean symptom control can be provided at home and until end of life.