North America is in the midst of the worst opioid addiction crisis in its history—so bad, in fact, that future generations will be living with its effects.
During the decade between 2002 and 2012, the use of opioids by pregnant women increased nearly five-fold, and a study published today in JAMA Pediatrics shows that rural states have shouldered 80 percent of that spike. The blame falls on heroin, along with prescription opioids like hydrocodone and fentanyl.
During the 2003/2004 period, 12.9 percent of babies born with the group of drug-related problems known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) were in low-population areas. By the 2012/2013 period, that proportion grew to 21.2 percent. Data from 2012 also showed that the number of pregnant women using opioids in rural counties was almost 70 percent higher than that of urban areas, and rural births that year were more than twice as likely to be complicated by the mother's opioid use.The new study highlights the potential disparity in care and opioid prevention between residents of urban and rural counties. These discrepancies can include access to clinics and other additional facilities, as well as the drugs buprenorphine and naloxone, which are used in the treatment of opioid addiction and overdose.According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 2014, the most recent year for which data exists, saw more drug-overdose deaths than any other year on record. And six in ten of those deaths involved opioids.
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