OBJECTIVE:

to describe hospitalizations due to drug poisonings in children under five years old, in Brazil, from 2003 to 2012.

METHODS:

descriptive study, with data from the National Hospital Information System (SIH/SUS); the drugs involved were divided into therapeutic classes, according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification (ATC).

RESULTS:

17,725 hospitalizations were identified, from which 22,395 poisonings were identified, and 75 deaths; the most common therapeutic classes were unspecified drugs (38.0%), antiepileptic/sedative-hypnotics/anti-parkinson drugs (19.8%), systemic antibiotics (13.4%) and non-opioid-analgesics/antipyretics (6.5%), varying among country regions and age groups; in 38.5% of the poisonings it was not possible to correlate therapeutic classes and ATC categories.

CONCLUSION:

the high frequency of unspecified drugs was a limitation; among the specified drugs, the most common were those that act in the central nervous system and those used in pediatric diseases (antibiotics and analgesics).

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