Prenatal opioid use is associated with increased maternal and infant mortality, prematurity, and poor neonatal outcomes.
Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment or SBIRT has been shown to be a quick and effective means of identifying and intervening with patients whose patterns of use put them at risk for, or who already have, substance-related health problems.
According to a recent analysis of national data by the Centers for Disease Control, the number of pregnant women with opioid use disorder (as documented at the time of delivery) more than quadrupled from 1999 [...]
The use of opioid drugs in women of childbearing age has become a pressing public health concern. Â It is clear that opiate use during pregnancy puts the mother and child at risk; opiate use during [...]
We have been writing over the last few years about the growing problem of opioid use and abuse in women of reproductive age. Â Responding to a dramatic increase in the number of women abusing opiates [...]
Over the last week, there have been quite a few articles in the press detailing the increase in opioid use in the United States, focusing the impact of this epidemic on infants and children. According [...]
This report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was published yesterday and is a good, albeit alarming, companion to the post we published yesterday on obstetrical outcomes.
In a recent study, researchers looked at the rising nationwide trend of opioid abuse and dependence in pregnancy and obstetrical outcomes in this patient population. Previous research has focused on neonatal outcomes, such as neonatal abstinence syndrome; however, maternal complications have not been well-studied. In this study, data was collected from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), including nearly 57 million American women who were admitted for obstetric delivery between the years 1998-2011. Overall 113,105 of those women (0.2%) were identified as abusing or being dependent on opioids. The prevalence increased by 127% from the beginning of the study in 1998 until its completion in 2011, reflecting the growing opioid epidemic.  The increase was mostly represented in women 20 to 34 years or age.
