Uso de cafeína em crianças e adolescentes

Abstract

Caffeine is probably the most widely used psychoactive substance worldwide, it is legally available for consumption of children, adolescents and adults and it is manly sold between foods and beverages. It behaves central and peripheral nervous system stimulator leading to systemic effects, tolerance, dependence and poisoning. This article aims to review the effects of caffeine use in children and adolescents. The bibliographic search was performed from January 2013 to June 2014 in databases of Capes portal, Virtual Health Library (LILACS, MEDLINE, SciELO, Cochrane Library), in OVID and Embase, in the last decade. By analyzing the revised articles, one realizes that the caffeinated beverage intake for pediatric patients is still not safe, wherein is not beneficial and is able to cause various adverse effects, including the possibility of interfering in the development of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, besides the risk of dependency and intoxication. Thus, its use should be discouraged at home, in schools, by the government, doctors, nutritionists and the media.