[Ms.RN]

Hello

How do doctors decide on dosage of pain medicine for 16 year olds?
Are they considered grown up and given adult dosage? or are they still considered pediatrics and given basded on weight?
Is Darvocet given to pediatric patients?

[navynurse06]

Most all meds in peds are based on thier wt. So no there aren't considered grown up.

And Darvocet isn't usually given to peds pts. I consulted with one of my coworkess on that one who has worked in peds many years.

[MissJoRN]

We do give 16 y/o Percocet post-op, burns, CA, for instance never Darvocet. Honestly I've never questioned that but my opinion/ observations on Darvocet is that there is an awful lot of APAP per dose compared to the narcotic pain relief/ equianalgesia. I suspect that most peds feel the same way? I'd also hesitate to subject a younger tummy to Darvocet which seems a little less tolerable than Percocet.
Morphine isn't usually strictly calculated anymore in our teens, nor other drugs, since usually the weight based dose would be over the max suggested starting dose anyway. Morphine, particularly, tends to be titrated by need, effect, and side effect (low!) rather than rubber stamping a dose by weight as would be appropriate for an antibiotic.