CHILDREN ARE NOT LITTLE ADULTS Introduction

Task-force in Europe for Drug Development for the Young

Slide.1
The course entitled Children are not little adults aims to describe the impact of paediatric pharmacological characteristics on the development of medicines.

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The paediatric population presents a variety of different features with respect to adults. These features strongly influence the use of medicines in children. This course will examine these aspects to evaluate drug therapy in the paediatric population.

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This course concerns the substantial changes in body proportions and composition, which accompany growth and development. This dynamic process of maturation represents one of the main differences between the paediatric and the adult populations. Consequently the developmental changes in physiology influence the pharmacology of medicines used in children, in particular the efficacy, the safety and the dosing regimens.

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This course is devoted to those who, on a daily basis, face problems related to the use of medicinal products in the paediatric population, such as health care providers, researchers, members of ethics committees, and personnel of pharmaceutical companies.

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The course is structured in 3 modules and each module is made up of a graphic presentation supported by audio comments. In addition, to support the oral presentation, supplementary material is available. This is made up of 3 scientific articles, a video showing the lecture Paediatric specificity for non-clinical tests, given by Marcello Tonini, Professor of the University of Pavia, and the textbook of the talk carried out during the presentation. All documentation can either be viewed on-line or downloaded by the user on his or her personal computer. As mentioned in the video presentation which introduces the E-Learning Platform, at the end of the course, students have to pass a final test which will evaluate what theyve learnt. They also have the possibility of asking the teacher directly questions about aspects of the course which are of particular interest.

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Heres a summary of the contents of the 3 modules: Module1 Paediatric ages and body characteristics provides an overview of the relevant differences between adults and children, and defines the different classes of age. Module2 Childrens response to drugs, illustrates the characteristics of pharmacology in an organism under development and provides some examples. Module3 Focusing on prenatal-neonatal age, addresses the issues dealt with in the first Modules, but with particular reference to the prenatal-neonatal age group.