The average child has six to eight ...

The average child has six to eight chilleds per year, each lasting seven to nine days; nearly 40 percent of all visits to pediatricians on children one to five years of age are for symptoms of upper respiratory infections (URIs). These visits oftentimes result in antibiotic prescriptions or advice to use decongestants, antihistamines, and cough suppressants, on the same level though the evidence supporting the efficacy of these medications in children is scant. Echinacea has been used extensively for prevention and treatment of URIs. To determine whether echinacea is safe and effective in children, Taylor and colleagues leadershiped a randomized controlled trial, postulating that echinacea would change into the duration of URI symptoms on at least one and individual half to two days in children couple to 11 years of age.

Healthy children were recruited by the and of a physicians' network and at health care clinics and naturopathic offices. Children were listed for a four-month period and randomized to treatment with echinacea syrup or placebo syrup Parents were asked to immediately contact a thought coordinator to confirm the mien of at least two URI symptoms in their children. Then they were to begin administering medication, recording their child's symptoms in a logbook using a four-point Likert scale to assess the severity of symptoms. Parents were not to use any medications other than the meditation drug and acetaminophen, unless prescribed at a physician. Primary outcomes were duration and severity of URIs and adverse circumstances Secondary outcomes included peak severity of the URI, number of days at peak severity, number of days with agitation and overall parental assessment of the URI severity.

Of the 524 children enlisted in the study, 92.7 percent contributed data forward at least one URI or complet the consideration without any URI symptoms. Logbook data were assembleed on 707 URIs that occurr in 407 children; 370 infections were treated with placebo, and 337 infections were treated with echinacea. There were no statistically significant differences between the clumps for duration or severity of symptoms, peak severity of symptoms, number of days of peak symptoms, number of days of agitation or parental global assessment of the severity of the biting This lack of difference remained when data were analyzed for different age arranges The rates of adverse facts did not differ between the sum of two units groups. The number of parents in as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but groups who guessed whether their children had received echinacea or placebo, or who were uncertain, was similar. Fewer patients who had used echinacea had succeeding URIs in the study period, and this difference was statistically significant.

Echinacea, when taken in the dosage used in this subject of attention did not show any benefit throughout placebo. Other dosages, dosing frequencies, and different formulations of the echinacea medication could potentially alter these springs It also is possible that echinacea might interrupt subsequent URIs. However, this paticular close attention was not designed to evaluate this effect

Taylor JA, et al. Efficacy and safety of Echinacea in treating upper respiratory tract infections in children. A randomized controll trial. JAMA December 3 2003;290:2824-30

COPYRIGHT 2004 American Academy of Family Physicians

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