Washington: Emergency room admission cases among children due to poisoning by strong painkillers have considerably gone up in the USA as revealed by a study. Even though there is an overall drop in the rate of painkiller poisoning in children since 2005, the severity of such instances has increased to a significant degree.
Published in the Journal of Clinical Toxicology, this study analysed more than 200,000 US paediatric cases of pain-relief misuse, abuse or self-harm.
The findings have revealed that the proportion of the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions rose by more than a third during the study period from 6.6 per cent between 2005 and 2009 to 9.6 per cent between 2015 to 2018.
This disturbing trend is being fuelled by suspected suicide cases among under-19s who have overdosed on legal or prescription opioid drugs.
Methadone, prescription pain-reliever fentanyl, and heroin are most associated with the need for intensive care doctors to give medical treatment, according to the findings. The researchers are calling for a strategy that combines laws to restrict access to opioids with improved mental health support for children and adolescents.
“This study suggests the opioid epidemic continues to have a serious impact on pediatric patients, and the healthcare resources required to care for them,” says Dr Megan Land from Emory University School of Medicine, in Georgia, USA.
Drug overdose deaths in the US have tripled in the past two decades. Those derived from the opium poppy plant (opioids) can be highly potent and account for two-thirds of fatal drug poisonings.
–ANI
