Opioids Dominate as Primary Cause of Poisoning Deaths in Children

A examine performed by researchers from Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) discovered that opioids had been accountable for greater than half of all deadly poisonings in youngsters underneath the age of 5, a quantity that has greater than doubled since 2005. The examine additionally highlights that over-the-counter medication nonetheless contribute to deadly poisonings on this age group regardless of elevated regulation. The researchers emphasize the necessity for improved intervention to stop additional deadly poisonings.

Researchers discover charge of deadly opioid poisonings amongst youngsters greater than doubled over 13-year span

Over-the-counter medication additionally proceed to pose deadly dangers to younger youngsters regardless of measures to scale back publicity.

Researchers from Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) discovered opioids had been accountable for greater than half of all deadly poisonings in youngsters ages 5 and youthful, greater than double the proportion of deadly poisonings brought on by opioids in 2005. Moreover, over-the-counter medication nonetheless contribute to deadly poisonings on this age group regardless of elevated regulation. The findings, printed at the moment within the journal Pediatrics, underscore the necessity for improved intervention to stop additional deadly poisonings.

Greater than half of all reported poisonings have an effect on youngsters ages 5 and youthful and have the best charge of emergency division visits for unintentional drug-related poisonings. Whereas child-resistant packaging for a lot of medicines and dangerous merchandise has considerably decreased the variety of unintentional deadly poisonings in younger youngsters, the escalating opioid epidemic in the US has contributed to latest little one poisoning deaths.

Finding out deadly poisonings in younger youngsters on a broad scale within the U.S. has been difficult for researchers. Each state conducts little one demise opinions, which examine how and why these deaths occur and what steps will be taken to stop them. Baby demise opinions are performed by groups that usually take a multidisciplinary method when reviewing pediatric fatalities. The Nationwide Middle for Fatality Evaluation and Prevention supplies assets for these little one demise opinions and maintains a reporting system that collects information from these committees.

Opioids are a category of medication which might be generally used to deal with ache. They work by binding to particular receptors within the mind and spinal wire to scale back the feeling of ache. Opioids will be prescribed by docs for short-term ache administration after surgical procedure or harm, or for power ache circumstances like most cancers or arthritis. Nevertheless, they will also be extremely addictive and abused. Generally abused opioids embrace prescription painkillers like oxycodone and hydrocodone, in addition to unlawful medication like heroin. Opioid abuse can result in a variety of unfavourable well being results, together with respiratory melancholy, overdose, and demise.

“By comprehensively assessing deadly poisonings amongst youngsters at a nationwide stage, we had been capable of higher perceive the size of this tragic and preventable public well being concern,” mentioned first examine writer Christopher Gaw, MD, a Pediatric Emergency Drugs Fellow with the Poison Management Middle and the Middle for Harm Analysis and Prevention at CHOP. “We had been additionally capable of particularly characterize the proportion of poisoning deaths that may very well be attributed to opioids annually.”

The examine group used information from 40 states collaborating within the Nationwide Fatality Evaluation-Case Reporting System on deaths attributed to poisonings amongst youngsters 5 years and youthful between 2005 and 2018. Throughout that interval, 731 poisoning-related fatalities had been reported by little one demise opinions.

The researchers discovered that greater than two-fifths of those poisoning deaths occurred amongst youngsters 1-year-old or youthful, and greater than 65% of those fatalities occurred at house. Almost one-third of kids who died by poisoning had been supervised by somebody aside from a organic father or mother. Opioids had been the commonest substance contributing to demise, adopted by over-the-counter medicines for ache, colds and allergy symptoms. In 2005, opioids contributed to 24.1% of deaths, however this proportion elevated to 52.2% by 2018.

The authors famous that whereas initiatives centered on decreasing opioid prescribing resulted in a transient discount in these deaths within the early 2010s, previously decade, new opioid sources—together with heroin and artificial opioids similar to fentanyl—have reversed prior public health gains. Additionally, while medication safety initiatives like unit dose packaging have shown promise in reducing these unintended exposures, the approach does not address all prescription opioids or illicit opioids.

“It’s clear from these findings that preventing fatal pediatric poisonings requires a multifaceted approach involving caregiver education and community-level interventions,” said senior study author Daniel J. Corwin, MD, MSCE, an attending physician and Associate Director of Research in the Division of Emergency Medicine at CHOP. “One such intervention is improving the availability of naloxone for the public, which can rapidly reverse opioid overdose and is safe and effective for use in children.”

Reference: “Characteristics of Fatal Poisonings Among Infants and Young Children in the United States” by Christopher E. Gaw, MD, MBE; Allison E. Curry, PhD, MPH; Kevin C. Osterhoudt, MD, MSCE; Joanne N. Wood, MD, MSHP and Daniel J. Corwin, MD, MSCE, 8 March 2023, Pediatrics.
DOI: 10.1542/peds.2022-059016