Rapidly increasing numbers of babies are being born with agonizing opioid withdrawal, due to the rising numbers of women abusing heroin and prescription painkillers across the U.S.
The Arizona Department of Health Services cited an increase of 224 percent of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) between 2008 and 2015. They also stated that the number of babies who are exposed to general narcotics in the womb increased by 219 percent between 2008 and 2014.
Arizona is not the only state to observe this pattern. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said the rate of babies born with opioid exposure has more than quadrupled. Compared to only 126 cases of NAS in 205, an increase of several hundred was recorded in 2015, with 598 cases. Ohio’s Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have found a more than 14-fold increase in NAS rates since 2009. Now around 3.3 percent of babies in the area suffer from opioid withdrawals at birth. In Missouri, numbers have risen by 538 percent, with at least 8 in 1000 babies now exposed to opioids in utero.
The Daily Caller reflects on the consequences for the infants:
Doctors are still unsure what the lifetime repercussions of NAS may be for the infants, but short-term symptoms include seizures, trouble feeding, excessive crying, diarrhea and rapid breathing.
“They go through the same withdrawals that an adult would go through, except they’re not able to verbalize what that pain is,” Pat Brown, manager of the newborn intensive care unit at Tuscon Medical Center, told Tuscon.com.
The trend is thought to be the result of rising rates of heroin abuse and the pervasive use of prescription painkillers in household use.