Abstract
Pediatric use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the Netherlands is highly prevalent. The risks of pediatric CAM use are, however, largely unknown. Therefore, a 3-year survey was carried out at the Dutch Pediatric Surveillance Unit. Pediatricians were asked to register cases of adverse events associated with pediatric CAM usage. In 3 years, 32 unique adverse events were registered. Twenty-two of these adverse events were indirect and not related to the specific CAM therapy but due to delaying, changing, or stopping of regular treatment, a deficient or very restrictive diet or an incorrect diagnosis by a CAM therapist. These events were associated with many different CAM therapies. Nine events were deemed direct adverse events like bodily harm or toxicity and one-third of them occurred in infants. Only supplements, manual therapies, and (Chinese) herbs were involved in these nine events. In one case, there was a risk of a serious adverse event but harm had not yet occurred.
Conclusion: Relatively few cases of adverse events associated with pediatric CAM usage were found, mostly due to delaying or stopping conventional treatment. Nevertheless, parents, pediatricians and CAM providers should be vigilant for both direct and indirect adverse events in children using CAM, especially in infants.
What’s Known: • The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in children is common. • Previous surveillance studies in other countries showed severe adverse events may occur after pediatric CAM usage. | |
What is New: • In the Netherlands CAM-related adverse events are rare but can occur, with variable etiology and severity (from mild to potentially life-threatening) • Most CAM-related adverse events are not directly the result of CAM toxicities but rather are associated with withdrawal from appropriate therapies or with providers unable to recognize health-relevant states and delaying important diagnoses. |
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Data Availability
The collected data can be made available in Dutch and after removal of personal information in the submitted cases.
Abbreviations
- CAM:
-
Complementary and alternative medicine
- DPSS:
-
Dutch Pediatric Surveillance System
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The research was funded by The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) and the research department of the Martini hospital in Groningen.
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The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose. JPR was and BV is employed at the Martini hospital in Groningen but both did not work for the research department that funded this study.
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This is a surveillance study. The Research Ethics Committee of the St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, Netherlands has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.
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BV coordinated the data collection, performed the analysis of the results and wrote the draft and final version of the manuscript. JPR and AV conceptualized and initiated the survey, contributed to the analysis of the results, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
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Communicated by Gregorio Paolo Milani
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Vos, B., Rake, J.P. & Vlieger, A. Adverse events associated with pediatric complementary and alternative medicine in the Netherlands: a national surveillance study. Eur J Pediatr 180, 2165–2171 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03899-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-020-03899-8