Researchers from Perth Children’s Hospital and University of WA create chocolate-tasting painkiller

WA researchers have developed a chocolate-flavoured painkiller making it easier for children to swallow bitter-tasting medication before surgery.

Researchers from Perth Children’s Hospital and University of WA have successfully trialled a new approach to the problem of convincing reluctant young patients to swallow medication by masking the horrible taste with the sweet taste of chocolate.

The team conducted a clinical trial with 141 children over a 28-month period to assess the taste, tolerability and absorption rates of the chocolate-tasting, chewable tramadol — opioid pain medication prescribed to treat post-operative pain in youth.

Lead researchers PCH paediatric anaesthetist and UWA paediatric anaesthesia chairwoman Britta Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg and UWA professor of pharmaceutics Lee Yong Lim, are bathing in sweet success after the trial proved bitter drugs could taste palatable.

Professor Regli-von Ungern-Sternberg said anaesthetists regularly encountered challenges due to children’s reluctance or refusal to swallow bitter-tasting medications.

“Some medications can taste horrible which can prove challenging for many children to swallow, particularly for anxious children and those in pain after surgery,” she said.

Participants and their families demonstrated positive preferences for the new chewable tablet.

Jemma Neal is the mother of a chronically ill child and said anything to alleviate stress in children having to undergo multiple surgeries made a huge difference.

“Each procedure becomes more traumatic; tramadol tastes horrible and advances such as this can have a massive positive impact,” she said.