The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of painkiller OxyContin for kids between the ages of 11 and 16 who are suffering from severe pain, USA Today reports.
OxyContin had come under the scanner in recent years because of its frequent abuse by people who would crush the pills to be snorted or injected.
In 2010, Purdue Pharma reformulated OxyContin to discourage its addiction.
The FDA asked Purdue to perform studies to check the safety of the drug for use in children ages 11 to 16 for pain caused by cancer, trauma or major surgery, said Sharon Hertz, physician with the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in an interview on the agency's web site.
The agency was concerned that children have fewer options for painkillers than adults.
The FDA approved OxyContin for children who need "daily, round-the-clock, long-term" pain relief for which there is no alternative, Hertz said, according to USA Today.
In addition, doctors should only prescribe OxyContin in children who have already been treated with opiate painkillers and can tolerate at least 20 milligrams a day of oxycodone. A sudden dose of an opioid can lead to overdose and death if the patient has not been exposed to the drug type.
"Children are not treated with opioids very often and usually it's only for a limited period of time with close supervision by health care professionals," Hertz said, according to USA Today. "Fewer daily doses may free patients for physical therapy appointments, allow them to go home from the hospital sooner and may help them to sleep through the night without waking up."
The approval to prescribe oxytocin to children has elicited mixed responses from the medical community. While some feel that having additional long-acting painkillers will be helpful for treating children with extreme pain, others feel that prescribing OxyContin to youngsters with short-term medical needs could be put them at risk for developing an addiction.
