Increasing Numbers of Newborns Are Born Addicted to Pain Pills

By Leslie Minora Tue., Apr. 12 2011 at 11:22 AM

via Damon Winter/The New York Times

A nurse administers methodone to a newborn, 4 weeks old.

This week, the New York Times called attention to a largely overlooked demographic of pain pill addicts -- newborn babies.

The Times reports that as pain pill abuse "ravages communities across the country," more newborns enter the world crying excessively, shaking, experiencing stiff limbs, and other problems "that make their first days of life excruciating" as they go through withdrawal.

It's no secret that Florida's pain pill addiction problems are nothing short of epidemic -- our state has pill mills serving up OxyContin the way McDonald's doles out hamburgers: cheaply, at a fast clip, and without much screening.

In fact, a Time magazine article even compares the number of Broward County "pill mills" to McDonald's restaurants: "There are more of these pain clinics here in Broward County than there are McDonald's restaurants: 115 so-called pill mills, vs. about 70 of the burger franchises."

It's not a stretch to realize that with a pool of addicted adults begging for appointments at these booked pain clinics comes a runoff of addicted babies.

The Times article is reported from Maine, where pill problems are rampant. Doctors there, as elsewhere, prescribe babies methadone or other treatments to ease them through opiate withdrawal. Some newborns have to stay in the neonatal unit for weeks for treatment and observation, an endeavor both sensitive and expensive. Hospitals in Florida, like hospitals in states including Maine and Ohio, have experienced significant increases in newborns treated for opiate withdrawal, according to the Times.

Treatment methods for newborns in withdrawal and long-term effects of varying courses of care are nebulous and have not been studied extensively. Now, as the discourse about pill mills continues, perhaps babies should be a conversation topic.

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Tags:

New York Times, newborns, Oxycontin, pain pills, pill mills, Time magazine

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Codeine Addiction

There are so many pain killers which is used for addiction.Codeine is one of them.It is designed to ease pain and examples of this include analgesics and cough medicines, for example Ibuprofen (analgesic) and Benelyn (cough syrup). It is also found in several prescriptions medicines.Codeine addiction is a form of addiction that often sneaks up on the person involved in its use. This is because codeine is a medication that is prescribed to help alleviate pain. This makes it easy for a person who takes codeine to develop a codeine addiction, because he or she thinks codeine is the only way to cope with their pain. Eventualyy the mind shift is that it is OK to take it to prevent pain from happening whether needed or not.

Paul Sloan

Interesting as Maine sold 100% more Methadone than Florida and 50% less Oxycodone than FL per 100k population.&Tennessee sold 250% more Hydrocodone and 250% more Codeine than Florida and 45% less Oxycodone than FL per 100K population&Arizona sold 100% more Morphine than Florida and 50% less Oxycodone than FL per 100K population.

Paul Sloan

Maybe you should stop being complicit in the problem as your pay comes from pages of pain clinic ads. SHAME OF YOU!

Paul Sloan

strangelove262

there's a darkness to this that's almost beyond conception. i've seen grownups go through withdrawal and i'm pretty sure if someone had offered to put a bullet behind their ear they would have accepted. reign these monsters in now.