Painkiller-addicted newborns skyrocket in US

The number of US pregnant women and newborns who are addicted to opiate prescribed medications has significantly increased over the past ten years. A survey of more than 4,000 hospitals across the US revealed that diagnosis of neonatal abstinence syndrome, a drug withdrawal syndrome among newborns, almost tripled between 2000 and 2009. The increasing rate is due to the rising number of expecting mothers who take pain medications such as Oxycodone and Vicodin or methadone, heroin and other opiates. According to the findings appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), one in every 1,000 newborns in 2009 was affected by neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a withdrawal syndrome caused due to opiate exposure in the womb. Estimate show that a baby is born with prescription drug withdrawal every minute. “That's about one baby per hour,” said the lead author Dr. Stephen Patrick of the University of Michigan. “We were surprised by it. That's a startling increase.” According to the level of baby’s dependency, the conditions appears with different manifestations such as low birth weight, irritability, muscle cramping, tremors, feeding problems, vomiting and watery stools and even seizures and breathing problems in more severe cases. The alarming findings show the importance of identifying mothers using opiate painkillers early in pregnancy and treating the newborn babies as soon as possible. The study also highlights the importance of applying strategies to reduce the unnecessary use of those medications in particular during pregnancy.