CNN: Child Opioid Abuse

Mar 9, 2018·0 visitors

Dr Jason Kane

Cohost

Stage· 11 messages

Mar 9, 2018

Sanjay Gupta · 1:18 PM

Hi Jason. Thanks for joining me in the chat today. For those that don’t know Jason is an associate professor of pediatrics and critical care at Comer Children's Hospital in Chicago.

Dr Jason Kane · 1:20 PM

Hi Sanjay. Thanks for having me, its great to be able to discuss this very grave issue facing American's today on such an open platform. Anyone tuning in, I welcome you to ask questions that concern you on this issue.

Sanjay Gupta · 1:23 PM

At first we thought this was widespread across the board but we are now seeing a growing epidemic among children. How do you think this is happening?

Dr Jason Kane · 1:24 PM

When they come in, they're going to fall into one of two categories: either they're teenagers with intentional or drug-seeking behavior because of recreational or self-injurious behavior, or they're kids who got into their parents' medication. n

Sanjay Gupta · 1:33 PM

And just how serious is the issue now?n

Dr Jason Kane · 1:33 PM

As this diagram shows, the number of children admitted to hospitals for opioid overdose nearly doubled to 1,504 patients between 2012 and 2015, from 797 patients between 2004 and 2007. n

Dr Jason Kane · 1:33 PM

http://cdn.tawkers.com/tawkers-media-tawk-comment-image-ff808181-6202a833-0162-0af7b794-0019.pngimage

Dr Jason Kane · 1:34 PM

The thing that is most striking is that in the youngest children, those under six years of age, 20% of the ingestions were of methadonen

Sanjay Gupta · 1:34 PM

So where are they getting all this methodone from? n

Dr Jason Kane · 1:34 PM

Methadone is prescribed for the treatment of opioid withdrawal symptoms and also as a pain killer. So much of the time it’s the parents that are treating themselves.

Sanjay Gupta · 1:40 PM

★ Spotlighted from Gabrielle Hamann

“Do you think there are any measures the gov at state or national level could put in to prevent children from getting access to this medication. Such as more secure packaging preventing children from accessing the drug!?”