Grant: Catalyst Grant: Post Market Drug Safety and Effectiveness

In Canada, countless children experience injuries and pain every day. This pain is often diffucult for the child (and their family) to deal with. Children with pain are commonly told to take painkillers at home. These painkillers are variable in how well they work. They can also cause pretty bad side effects, that may cause a family to stop using them, even though the child is still in pain. Under-treated pain can cause both immediate and long-term ill effects for a child. The effects of medicine (both good and bad) might be due, in part, to each person's DNA. DNA is the building block of our bodies, and is what make each person a little bit different from the next. Some people's DNA allows them to have more pain relief than others, even when two people are given the same medicine. These DNA differences can also cause one person to have more bad side effects with a medicine, than another person. This study will try to figure out how DNA changes can affect a child's ability to have lesser side effects and feel better with oxycodone, a pain medicine used for children. We will then use this information to help figure out the best medicines to prescribe for each unique child.