Prescription Pain Medication and Infants

Recently in the news there were some disturbing statistics about infants suffering from prescription pain medication withdrawal upon birth. It turns out this was reported last year ( Watch Video ) and is gaining attention again because the numbers of infants suffering has been rising at a very fast rate.

Here is a summary of the current news ( read the full article ): 

“[Janet] Colbert, a registered nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit at a Broward County hospital, said more often than not the babies at her hospital are testing positive for oxycodone and other prescription drugs.

From 2006 to 2009, there was a 173 percent increase in newborns treated at Florida hospitals for drug withdrawal syndrome. Doctors, nurses and social workers say cases of “crack babies” are dwindling, while cases of prescription drug dependence are becoming more prevalent.

Former state Sen. Dave Aronberg, a Palm Beach County attorney now leading Attorney General Pam Bondi’s new anti-pill mill initiative, called the newborn drug withdrawal statistics ‘horrifying’.

From her experience, Colbert said, the numbers sound low. That may be because some doctors classify cases as maternal drug abuse rather than neonatal drug abuse.

Officials say the increase in drug-dependent newborns is further evidence of Florida’s — and the nation’s — growing use of prescription drugs.

From October 2008 to March 2009, 49 of the nation’s top 50 dispensing doctors of oxycodone were in Florida, with the majority concentrated in Broward and Palm Beach counties, a grand jury reported. And according to one national study, the use of prescription pain medication increased 400 percent from 1998 to 2008.

‘It’s like a side effect no one’s seeing,’ [Colbert] said. ‘Every time we admit another baby like this, I wonder, why isn’t somebody doing something about this.’”

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