• Nearly all pediatricians (>90%) report prescribing analgesics, antibacterials, dermatologic agents, gastrointestinal and respiratory tract medications. Most pediatricians prescribe antiviral (85%) and mental health (66%) medications, while 47% say they prescribe sedatives/hypnotics and only 34% prescribe cardiovascular medications.
  
  

• Pediatricians say they have about the right amount of information for most classes of drugs. However, 67% of pediatricians say they do not have enough information on cardiovascular medications, 56% lack information on mental health medications and 46% say they have too little information on sedatives/hypnotics.

  • One-half of pediatricians (50%) think it is most important to have additional information on mental health medications, while 20% say information on cardiovascular medications is most important. Less than 10% named another class of drugs as most important to have additional information.

• Nearly all pediatricians (>90%) say they currently prescribe ibuprofen and inhaled steroids, 83% prescribe polyethylene glycol and 63% prescribe quinolones. About one-half prescribe atomoxetine (54%) and sumatriptans (50%), 43% prescribe SSRIs, and 19% prescribe atypical antipsychotics. Less than 10% each prescribe buspirone, isotretinonin or propofol.

• Most pediatricians think they have sufficient information on ibuprofen (92%), inhaled steroids (87%), polyethylene glycol (72%), quinolones (61%), isotretinonin (57%), and atomoxetine (53%). However, most pediatricians say they have do not have enough information regarding dosing, efficacy or safety on atypical antipsychotics (80%), buspirone (75%), propofol (70%), sumatriptans (64%) and SSRIs (60%).
  
  
  • There was no consensus on which drug was most important to have additional information: 35% named SSRIs, 20% named atypical antipsychotics, and 10% said sumitriptans. Less than 10% each named any other drug.

Availability of Drug Therapies

Methods of Receiving Drug Labeling Information

• Eight out of ten pediatricians currently receive new information about clinically important pediatric drug labeling from a pediatric dosage book (85%) and from Pediatrics (78%); 74% named AAP News as a source, 64% named other journals and 61% say they get their information from drug representatives. Other sources are less frequently used: PDA-based databases (39%), news media (29%), nonFDA Web sites (27%), PediaLink (16%), and FDA Web sites (15%).
  
  
• About 30% of pediatricians say receiving drug labeling information via a pediatric dosage book is most likely to influence a change in their prescribing behavior; 17% say information in Pediatrics and 16% say AAP News is most likely to influence them to change prescribing behavior.
  
  
• A majority of pediatricians say they often or sometimes use general search engines (29% often, 38% sometimes), online drug databases (26%, 34%) and disease-specific Web sites (7%, 44%) to search for information on new pediatric drug labeling. Most pediatricians never use the Web sites of patient or advocacy organizations (77%, 72%, respectively) or FDA Web sites (55%) to search for drug labeling information.
  

• Forty-five percent of those who read the Pediatric Drug Labeling Update say its information has influenced them to change their prescribing practice for a specific drug, while 38% say they can't recall this ever happening.
  
  
• About one-third of pediatricians (32%) say they would be very likely to participate in an AAP-sponsored program on new pediatric drug labeling; 47% say they would be somewhat likely.
  
  
  • The preferred formats for such a program are: computerized course (38%), written self-instructional material such as PREP or PIR (34%), in-person CME course with a lecture and question/answer session (11%), and CME with a straight lecture/presentation (7%).