Babies born with drug withdrawal symptoms surge, says study
A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on April 30, 2012, said rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome, or babies dependent on drugs their mothers were addicted to, have tripled in the past decade.
A study published on Monday found that the number of babies born with symptoms of withdrawal from opiates has grown nearly three times between 2000 and 2009, according to MSNBC.
The study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, measured what is called neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). NAS occurs in babies who were exposed to opiates while in their mothers' wombs, according to MSNBC.
According to the Associated Press, the number of newborns with NAS has increased from 1 per 1,000 in 2000 to 3 per 1,000 in 2009. In 2009, more than 13,000 infants were affected.
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"That's about one baby per hour," said the lead author of the study, Dr. Stephen Patrick, according to CNN. He said, "We were surprised by it. That's a startling increase."
Patrick said, "There has been an incredible increase in the number of opiate pain relievers prescribed in the US," and added that the increase in cases seen in infants might be attributable to that fact.
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The New York Times noted that the condition can cause seizures, breathing problems, tremors, dehydration and irritability in infants. The infants are treated in hospitals, with doctors giving them small amounts of methadone or morphine to wean them off the addiction that their mothers suffer from.
The costs for treating the infants also rose between 2000 and 2009, the study found, with a price tag of $190 million soaring to $720 million, according to the AP.
The same study found that the number of pregnant mothers found using opiate drugs such as heroin, morphine, codeine and OxyContin jumped fivefold, between 2000 and 2009, according to The Times.
Patrick said, "This study is part of a bigger call to the fact that opiates are becoming a big problem in this country," according to Reuters.
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