The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source:
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:38 PM
REPORT: Number Of Children Admitted To Hospitals For Opioid Overdose Has Doubled Since 2004
The journal Pediatrics, looked at children between ages 1 and 17 who were admitted to hospitals and pediatric intensive care units with opioid-related diagnoses from 2004 to 2015.
Researchers found the number of children admitted to hospitals for opioid overdose nearly doubled to 1,504 patients between 2012 and 2015, from 797 patients between 2004 and 2007.
The researchers believed many of these children stumbled upon their parents' prescription medications.
"When they come in, they're going to fall into one of two categories: either they're teenagers with intentional or drug-seeking behavior because of recreational or self-injurious behavior, or they're kids who got into their parents' medication," said Dr. Jason Kane, an associate professor of pediatrics and critical care at Comer Children's Hospital in Chicago and a lead author on the study.
"The thing that was a bit striking is that in the youngest children, those under six years of age, 20% of the ingestions were of methadone. So you sort of have to ask yourself: where are they getting all this methadone from?" Methadone is prescribed for the treatment of opioid withdrawal symptoms and also as a pain killer.