Babies Born Addicted – Numbers on the Rise

Baby Drugs 01
Courtesy: drugfree.org

Babies Born Addicted – Numbers on the Rise

April 28, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – Neonatal abstinence syndrome, a drug-withdrawal syndrome that often occurs after exposure to prescription narcotic painkillers during pregnancy, affected only seven babies for every 1,000 in 2004.

By 2013, the number jumped to 27 infants for every 1,000 babies in the NICU, the study revealed.

Courtesy: drugfree.org
Courtesy: drugfree.org

The Baylor University Medical Center researchers also found the percentage of days spent in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) attributed to drug withdrawal went from 0.6 percent to 4 percent over that decade.

The findings were published online April 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine, to coincide with a presentation at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Diego.

Another recent study, published in April in the journal Pediatrics found the use of prescription narcotic painkillers can be startlingly common in pregnancy.

The prescription painkillers, also called opioids, include drugs such as hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (Oxycontin), codeine and morphine.

Nearly 30 percent of the Tennessee mothers-to-be in the Pediatrics study used at least one of these drugs while pregnant, and the associated risks went up if they also smoked or took antidepressants.

“I was surprised by the number of women prescribed opioid pain relievers in pregnancy,” said lead author Dr. Stephen Patrick, a neonatologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “I was also surprised by how commonly women smoked in pregnancy, and how much that increased the risk of neonatal abstinence syndrome among those who also used opioid pain relievers in pregnancy.”

The Tennessee study reviewed medical records of more than 112,000 women in the Tennessee Medicaid program between 2009 and 2011.

Of these women, about 28 percent had filled a prescription for at least one narcotic painkiller.

The vast majority took short-acting medications, such as hydrocodone or oxycodone. Only 3 percent were on maintenance therapy for addiction to illegal narcotics, such as heroin.

Courtesy: drugfree.org
Courtesy: drugfree.org

“Some women need to take opioids in pregnancy to improve their infant’s outcome,” Patrick explained. “For women with opioid dependency, we know that use of maintenance opioids like methadone decrease rates of preterm birth compared to heroin. For these women, neonatal abstinence syndrome may occur in their infants, but it is much better than the alternative, which is preterm birth.”

The women prescribed painkillers were more apt to report headaches or migraines and muscular or skeletal health problems. They were also more likely to have depression, to have an anxiety disorder and to smoke tobacco.

Forty-two percent of the women prescribed narcotics smoked during pregnancy. The more cigarettes a woman smoked daily, the more likely she was to give birth to a baby with withdrawal.

“That’s a modifiable behavior,” Patrick said. “For women who are in maintenance treatment, dose didn’t change the risk of neonatal abstinence syndrome, but smoking mattered a lot. So you can modify your infant’s risk of drug withdrawal if you decrease the amount you smoke.”

Taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a type of antidepressant, with prescription narcotics also doubled the risk of newborn withdrawal, the study found.

The Tennessee researchers found infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome were twice as likely as other newborns to be born at a low birth weight. They were also far more likely to have respiratory conditions, feeding difficulties and seizures.

Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, “With this increase in prescription painkiller use, we’re seeing an effect in our newborn population. If you think about how vulnerable our newborns are, this is really frightening.”

SOURCES: Stephen Patrick, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., assistant professor, pediatrics and health policy, division of neonatology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.; Jennifer Wu, M.D., obsetrician-gynecologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; April 13, 2015, Pediatrics, online; April 26, 2015, New England Journal of Medicine; April 26, 2015, presentation, Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, San Diego

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here