
95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Obstetric and Pediatric Pharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1563580
The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: This study aims to analyze the use of sedative-hypnotic drugs among children and adolescents in a hospital setting, providing a reference for optimizing drug use. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the prescription data of sedative-hypnotic drugs for children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years from 2018 to 2023 at the outpatient department of the hospital. Data were organized using Excel and analyzed using statistical software such as SPSS, with descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests used to analyze medication patterns across different age groups and genders. Results: The majority of prescriptions originated from the psychiatry department. The most common diagnoses included depressive state, anxiety state, and sleep disorders. Combination therapy with benzodiazepines and antidepressants was the most common treatment regimen. The number of prescriptions showed a yearly increasing trend, rising from 160 in 2018 to 1,583 in 2023, and the total usage also increased annually, from 30.47 grams in 2018 to 260.15 grams in 2023. Despite the increase in total usage, the drug usage per prescription decreased year by year. Most patients had a medication duration of less than 30 days, and the per capita usage increased with longer medication durations. Lorazepam and zopiclone were the most frequently used drugs. The study also found that the duration of medication use was significantly longer in female patients than in males, and significantly longer in the 6-12 age group compared to the 13-18 age group. Conclusion: The use of sedative-hypnotic drugs in children and adolescents has shown a yearly increasing trend, and the management of sedative-hypnotic drug use in children and adolescents should be strengthened.
Keywords: children and adolescents1, sedative-hypnotic drugs2, usage trends3, prescription analysis4, combination therapy5
Received: 20 Jan 2025; Accepted: 25 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Jiang, Ma, Hou, Miao, Lin, Mao, Dai, Yang, Tong, Su, Zhu, Ruan and Ji. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
zhenzhen Zhu, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
liemin Ruan, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
yunxin Ji, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Research integrity at Frontiers
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.