Nationwide, the number of babies born addicted to drugs increased by 800 percent between 2004 and 2013, according to Carrie Baker of the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association. Ms. Baker is also an adoptive mother of a baby born with opiate dependency. She cited a recent study that estimates 21,732 babies around the country were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, which includes symptoms of feeding trouble, seizures, tremors, low birth weight and vomiting, according to the report.
The Alliance to Prevent Abuse of Medicines assembled physicians and other specialists at a Senate briefing Wednesday, calling for more action to monitor prescriptions for pain medications. They spoke in favor of a legislation introduced by Ohio Senator Rob Portman (R) and Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D) that aims to combat prescription drug abuse by locking Medicare Advantage beneficiaries to one prescriber and one pharmacy to prevent physician and pharmacy shopping, according to the report.
The increased rate of addiction to pain medications and overdoses is likely connected to a push among physicians in the early 2000s to help manage patients’ pain. More physicians began overprescribing opioids like Hydrocodone and Oxycodone without fully understanding the potential for addiction, according to the report.
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