Young Children May Get No Relief From Cold Remedies, Study Finds

CHICAGO —  No good evidence exists that young children get relief from over-the-counter cold remedies, say doctors who reviewed 40 years of studies.

The Food and Drug Administration warned last year that well-meaning parents often overdose children with such remedies.

While most people keep several over-the-counter cold remedies at home, “The data on their effectiveness are limited and weak, especially in children,” the doctors said in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

The authors--Dr. William Feldman, head of pediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and Dr. Michael B. H. Smith, director of ambulatory care at Izaak Walton Killam Children’s Hospital in Halifax, Canada--said they examined every study they could find on the topic in medical literature from January, 1950, to January, 1991, for all ages.

After eliminating studies that failed to meet rigorous standards, such as comparing the cold remedies to placebos, the doctors analyzed 27 studies, two of which dealt with preschool children’s reaction to two different types of children’s medicine.

The studies on young children “demonstrated no symptom relief, whereas two done on older children (through age 11) showed some benefit,” the authors reported. Adults fared best, with varying relief from runny noses and congestion.

The authors called for more research focusing on benefits and side effects in different age groups.