CHICAGO – Less than a month old,
Savannah Dannelley scrunches her tiny face into a scowl as a nurse
gently squirts a dose of methadone into her mouth.
The infant is going through drug withdrawal and is
being treated with the same narcotic prescribed for her mother to fight
addiction to powerful prescription painkillers.
Disturbing new research says the number of U.S. babies
born with signs of opiate drug withdrawal has tripled in a decade
because of a surge in pregnant women's use of legal and illegal
narcotics, including Vicodin, OxyContin and heroin, researchers say. It
is the first national study of the problem.
The number of newborns with withdrawal symptoms
increased from a little more than 1 per 1,000 babies sent home from the
hospital in 2000 to more than 3 per 1,000 in 2009, the study found. More
than 13,000 U.S. infants were affected in 2009, the researchers
estimated.
The newborns include babies like Savannah, whose mother
stopped abusing painkillers and switched to prescription methadone
early in pregnancy, and those whose mothers are still abusing legal or
illegal drugs.
Weaning infants from these drugs can take weeks or
months and often requires a lengthy stay in intensive care units.
Hospital charges for treating these newborns soared from $190 million to
$720 million between 2000 and 2009, the study found.
The study was released online Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Savannah is hooked up to heart and oxygen monitors in
an Oak Lawn, Ill., newborn intensive care unit. In a pink crib, she
sleeps fitfully, sometimes cries all night, and has had diarrhea and
trouble feeding — typical signs of withdrawal. Some affected babies
also have breathing problems, low birth weights and seizures.
It nearly breaks her young mother's heart.
"It's really hard, every day, emotionally and
physically," said Aileen Dannelley, 25. "It's really hard when your
daughter is born addicted."
Doctors say newborns aren't really addicted — which
connotes drug-seeking behavior that babies aren't capable of — but
their bodies are dependent on methadone or other opiates because of
their mothers' use during pregnancy. Small methadone doses to wean them
off these drugs is safer than cutting them off altogether, which can
cause dangerous seizures and even death, said Dr. Mark
Brown, chief of
pediatrics at Eastern Maine Medical Center.
Newborn drug withdrawal is rampant in Maine, Florida, West Virginia, parts of the Midwest and other sections of the country.
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