Monday, March 5, 2018

Nearly twice as many kids being hospitalized due to opioids

  • The number of pediatric opioid hospitalizations requiring intensive care nearly doubled to 1,504 patients between 2012 and 2015, from 797 patients between 2004 and 2007.
  • One-third of the children that required intensive care due to opioid overdose were under the age of six, the study shows.

Children as young as 1 year old are overdosing on opioid medication and being hospitalized at a rapid rate, a new study published Monday found.

The number of pediatric opioid hospitalizations requiring intensive care nearly doubled to 1,504 patients between 2012 and 2015, from 797 patients between 2004 and 2007, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Pediatrics.

“We do believe there’s a direct relationship to the adult opioid crisis,” Dr. Jason Kane, associate professor of pediatrics and critical care at Comer Children’s Hospital in Chicago, told CNBC. He’s the lead author of the study, which used data from the Pediatric Health Information System database and involved an examination of 31 children’s hospitals.

Kane said about 20 percent of the youngest children were poisoned by methadone, an opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain or opioid dependence in adults. This means many young children are likely finding their parents’ medication and ingesting it, Kane said.

Read at CNBC.com here …

 

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source https://www.turningpointtreatmentcenter.com/nearly-twice-many-kids-hospitalized-due-opioids/

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