TOPLINE:

The rate of exposures to medications, dietary supplements, and psychoactive substances among children aged 6-12 years reported to US poison centers increased substantially between 2000 and 2023, especially exposures involving suspected self-harm or suicidal intent, which were more likely to require serious medical attention.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers reviewed data reported to US poison centers between 2000 and 2023 to examine features and trends of exposures to substances among children aged between 6 and 12 years.
• They analyzed over 1.5 million exposures to primary substances including medications, dietary supplements, and psychoactive substances.
• Key variables included age, sex, category of substance, site of exposure, and medical outcomes, among others.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall, 95.8% of exposures occurred in a residence, 90.1% involved a single substance, 54.3% occurred in children aged between 6 and 8 years, and 58.2% occurred in boys.
• A vast majority (86.5%) of exposures were unintentional, whereas 48.6% were attributed to therapeutic errors. Analgesics, antihistamines, and cough and cold preparations were among the most common substances that were reported.
• The rate of exposure increased by 53.8% over the 23-year period; exposures tied to suspected self-harm or suicidal intent increased by 311.3%, with the largest increases among children aged between 11 and 12 years.
• Although representing only 4.7% of all exposures, those involving suspected self-harm or suicidal intent accounted for 25.8% of exposures among children aged 12 years.
• Such exposures were about 14 times more likely to involve medical admission (risk ratio [RR], 14.32; 95% CI, 14.10-14.56) and eight times more likely to involve serious medical outcomes (RR, 8.04; 95% CI, 7.91-8.17) than all other exposures combined.

IN PRACTICE:

“[The study] findings underscore the need for increased targeted research and interventions to prevent substance exposures among 6- to 12-year-old children, especially exposures associated with suspected self-harm or suicidal intent among 11- to 12-year-old children,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Matthew J. Ruge, of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. It was published online on September 08, 2025, in Pediatrics.

LIMITATIONS:

Some children may have received treatment without notifying poison centers. Populations unaware of or lacking access to poison centers may have been underrepresented. Assessing self-harm or suicidal intent in young children might be difficult when they would have struggled to express their thoughts and feelings or when their accounts differed from those of their caregivers.

DISCLOSURES:

The lead author received a student research scholarship from the Child Injury Prevention Alliance. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.