A child took some psychiatric drugs on his own. And 470,000 drug packs got recalled

A child showed that some drug blister packs weren't "child resistant" as they should have been, so drugmakers Sandoz and Novartis recalled 470,000 of them.

The exact description of the problem, as stated in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notice: "The prescription drug packaging is not child resistant as required by the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, posing a poisoning risk if swallowed by children."

And the companies learned of this problem because "the firms have received one report of a child ingesting haloperidol from a blister pack."

Haloperidol, according to CVS.com, is used "to treat schizophrenia. The medicine is also used to control tics and vocal outbursts in patients with Tourette's syndrome and treat behavioral problems in children with severe conduct disorders. It should only be used in these children if other medicines have not worked."

Haloperidol (in .5, 1, 2, 5 and 10 mg) is one of the prescription drugs in blister packs from Sandoz that has been recalled. The others are: Azithromycin (250 mg); Donepezil (5 and 10 mg); Imapramine (25 and 50 mg); Isosorbide Dinitrate (10 and 20 mg); Naratriptan (2.5 mg); Ondansetron (8 mg) and Ondansetron ODT (4 and 8 mg); Perphenazine (2, 4, and 8 mg); and Risperidone (.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4 mg).

The Novartis drugs recalled are Zofran (4 and 8 mg) and Entresto (24/26 mg, 49/51 mg and 97/103 mg).

For number of pills in each blister pack, click here.

As for what the companies want consumers to do with the blister packs, other than put them somewhere kids can't get to them, contact them at 888-669-6682, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Eastern time, or 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday. Or, go to the website for Sandoz or Novartis.

This story was originally published July 8, 2018 at 9:41 AM.