health.msn.com — Free prescription drug samples distributed to pediatric patients may be unsafe, research suggests. The study, published in the October 2008 issue of Pediatrics, examined data on 10,295 children and adolescents from the 2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The researchers found that one in 20 American children received free drug samples in 2004. And among those who took at least one prescription drug that year, nearly one in 10 received free samples. This in concerning, since the researchers also found that some of the most frequently distributed samples may be unsafe. Four of the 15 most frequently distributed samples in 2004 were identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as having significant new safety concerns, including new black box warnings or significant revisions to existing warnings.
Add a live kick counter to your blog >>
You can even customize the image by choosing your own colors, and then clicking the button below to update the preview and the html code:
Simply copy and paste this HTML into your blog post.