Hospital admissions show the opioid crisis affects kids, too
Laura Sanders
1:30pm, March 14, 2018
As I’ve been reporting a story about the opioid epidemic, I’ve sorted through a lot of tragic numbers that make the astronomical spike in deaths and injuries related to the drugs feel more real.
The rise in the abuse of opioids — powerfully addictive painkillers — is driven by adults. But kids are also swept up in the current, a new study makes clear. The number of children admitted to pediatric intensive care units at hospitals for opioid-related trouble nearly doubled between 2004 and 2015, researchers report in the March Pediatrics.
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/growth-curve/hospital-admissions-kids-opioid-crisis