According to a new study published Wednesday in the Journal of Pediatrics, more children under the age of five are dying from opioid overdoses.
Researchers discovered that opioids accounted for 52% of overdose deaths in young children in 2018, more than double the rate of 24% in 2005. Throughout that 13-year span, 731 youngsters died as a result of drug overdoses.
Opioid Drug Causes Children’s Deaths
Several studies have revealed that the number of fatal poisonings in this age group has been declining since the Poison Prevention Packaging Act was passed in 1970 when harder-to-open childproof packaging became a standard for many drugs.
Dr. Christopher Gaw, an associate fellow at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia whose research focuses mostly on pediatric injury and poisoning, believes that people’s preferences for specific drugs have evolved, which has affected death figures.
Prescription opioids were the drug of choice throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. As rules tightened and more doctors and dentists became aware of the opioid problem, they prescribed fewer opioids, leading to an increase in the use of heroin and fentanyl.
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Drug Overdose Cases In US
Illicitly obtained medicines, such as fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than morphine and may kill swiftly, are not packaged in childproof containers.
The current study relies on previous research that has shown a consistent increase in the number of youngsters killed by opioids, as well as a growing number of adult deaths. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose deaths have more than quintupled since 1999, with opioids accounting for approximately 75% of the 91,799 overdose deaths in 2020.
For 97 of the children that died, child protective services departments had open case files. In 153 of the instances, there was a documented history of child abuse, and nearly a third of those who died with a history of mistreatment were less than a year old.
More than two-fifths of the children who died were newborns under the age of a year. More than 65% of the fatalities occurred at home. Over one-third were being watched over by someone who was not their biological parent.
More than 40% of the deaths in situations where the circumstances were documented were unintentional overdoses. A bit less than 18% were classified as intentional poisonings.
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