To what do you attribute to the recent rash of drug-addicted babies? From coast-to-coast hospitals are finding babies born already addicted to drugs.

I can tell you one thing – it is not all the hormones they are putting into our food. I believe it is prescription medication.

The neonatal unit isn't supposed to be a drug rehab ward.

But the drugs their mothers took are causing more newborns in the Sacramento, California area to spend their first days of life suffering through the pains of withdrawal.

From 2008 to 2010 submitted by hospitals to the state, the number of infants suffering withdrawal in the four-county area has doubled since the start of the decade.

Doctors diagnosed 156 local newborns with neonatal withdrawal syndrome from 2008 to 2010.

The syndrome generally occurs when mothers use drugs, particularly opiate painkillers, for an extended period during pregnancy. Its symptoms are similar to what addicts often experience when stopping a drug: sweating, fever, restlessness, poor appetite, vomiting and tremors.

Poor little babes, this is no way to enter a cold world.

While the syndrome is more prevalent, it is still rare, affecting one of every 450 local births in 2010.

More babies – about one of every 80 born in the region – are affected in some way by maternal drug use but do not suffer withdrawal symptoms. That figure, which experts say underestimates the problem, has grown at a moderate pace for years, and doctors have reported a shift from cocaine toward narcotics.

What is the culprit? Clinicians blame the rise in newborn drug withdrawal on increased use – and abuse – of prescription painkillers.

Nationally, reports of neonatal withdrawal syndrome increased from 7,500 to 12,000 from 1995 to 2008, or seven times faster than the growth in total births. The report said that "an indeterminate part" of the rise is due to "more liberal use of prescription opiates."

Pregnant mothers often realize that abusing drugs could harm their infants, but cannot kick the habit. Thirty-four-year-old Jennifer Hohnholz of Rancho Cordova said she smoked crack cocaine in 2009 while pregnant with her third child.

Hohnholz's child was born healthy but tested positive for drugs. The child was adopted and Hohnholz, who is now clean, hasn't seen her since.

Hohnholz, the former addict, went through a drug treatment program and got clean. She recently completed a certificate in office administration, and is looking for work.

She gave birth to a healthy son, Jaden, 17 months ago.

Drug classes and treatment do work. Regardless of your situation or what drug you are addicted to drug education is crucial to healthy babies and a productive society.

Source: http://www.sacbee.com

As entrance into college gets tougher and tougher students go to greater and greater lengths to hit the books. Drugs are not only abused by the students who ditch class and drop out.

Students looking to score higher and achieve more are turning to chemicals to keep them awake and alert. It is quite similar to body builders who use steroids to help them work out harder and longer with shorter recovery periods. Also like steroids, it is extremely dangerous!

Adderall

Adderall is a legal amphetamine that is prescribed to those who have been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). For people who have trouble focusing for long periods of time, this drug can be a lifesaver. Adderall is commonly associated with Ritalin as the most popular drug for people diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.

Adderall and other ADHD treatments are currently on the rise due to the increase in people being diagnosed with ADHD. A University of California-Berkeley study found that worldwide spending on drugs to treat ADHD raised 274 percent between 1993 and 2003. The United States accounted for 83 percent of the market by the end of that time period.

If you or someone you care about is using Adderall without a medical doctor’s guidance please stop and seek help immediately.

Prescription medication addiction is becoming a problem of epidemic proportions in this country. Add fetuses to the growing list of those addicted to prescription medication. No, that is not a typo, and really the only surprise is that obviously fetuses cannot access the Internet – yet!

Medical authorities are witnessing explosive growth in the number of newborn babies hooked on prescription painkillers, innocent victims of their mothers' addictions.

A Long History of Addicted Babies

Health professionals have dealt with addicted mothers and drug-exposed babies for decades.

In the 1960s and 1970s, heroin emerged as a problem. That is when neonatologist Loretta Finnegan, who has studied substance abuse, developed a scoring system of symptoms to diagnose neonatal abstinence syndrome or drug withdrawal in the infants. By the 1980s, the problem had shifted to cocaine and crack. In the past five to 10 years, doctors say they have treated growing numbers of babies hooked on prescription opioid painkillers.

While abuse of many street drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, is declining, painkiller abuse is growing. About 7 million people abuse prescription drugs, including painkillers, according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Deaths from prescription painkiller overdoses have more than tripled in the past decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The epidemic of drug-addicted newborns really follows exactly from the spread of the pill mills, the ability to buy prescription drugs like OxyContin on the street, to get them on the Internet. It's staggering to think of the financial, emotional and social costs of this problem.

Do you think legal remedies are the answer? Should law enforcement charge addicted mothers who give birth to addicted babies with a crime? If not, what is the answer? One thing that cannot hurt is for doctors to make sure all pregnant are educated to the dangers of prescription medications on pregnancies.

Add fetuses to the growing list of those addicted to prescription medication. No, that is not a typo, and really the only surprise is that obviously fetuses cannot access the Internet – yet!

Medical authorities are witnessing explosive growth in the number of newborn babies hooked on prescription painkillers, innocent victims of their mothers' addictions.

Examples:

• Maine Medical Center in Portland treated 121 babies dependent on prescription painkillers in 2010, up from 18 in 2001.
• East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville adopted a program to treat drug-exposed babies a year ago. Of the 579 babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit since then, 106 needed treatment for withdrawal from oxycodone and other painkillers — up from fewer than 40 in 2008. In September, painkiller-addicted babies filled nearly half the neonatal intensive care unit's 60 beds, the highest number ever. "It has just exploded," says John Buchheit, director of neonatology at East Tennessee Children's Hospital. "Narcotic use is just rampant in our society, and our area is particularly bad. The babies are caught in the middle."
• At St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, 40 babies born in the first nine months of this year needed special care because of painkiller exposure — a 33% increase over all of 2010, says Ken Solomon, director of neonatology at three hospitals in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

It has to be absolutely heartbreaking for anyone witnessing the birth of a child addicted to these drugs. The infants writhe in pain as they withdraw from the drugs. Unfortunately the problem is getting worse by the day. Mothers have to be unselfish with a child in the womb and must stop taking these medications while they are pregnant and breast feeding. 

Oprah Winfrey had Dr. Phil and the rest of Hollywood has had Dr. Drew. Just about everyone has heard of Dr. Drew Pinsky, the renowned psychiatrist that has worked tirelessly on television and radio to help rid society of its evils.

Pinsky, known for tackling both light and tough topics, has teamed up with the National Association of School Nurses to bring awareness to the problem of teen prescription drug abuse. Think your teen is immune? Think again.

You may worry about your teen trying illegal drugs at a party, but don't overlook an equally scary danger: prescription drugs, found right in your own home. Addiction expert Dr. Drew Pinsky says that in 2010, one in four teens had abused a prescription medication. That's 25 percent of all teens -- and that's a big statistic.

In 2009, the figure was one in five teens, which means that the problem is only growing. What can you do?

What is teen prescription drug abuse?

Prescription drug abuse is any use that is strictly intended to become intoxicated or get high. One time qualifies. One time can kill you. Furthermore, any prescription drug use that is not supervised by a professional is abuse. Unfortunately, as Dr. Drew noted, "The problem is that sometimes kids abuse the medicines that are being supervised by a professional.

The drugs are right in your own home

"Most often, teens are getting the prescription drugs from their friends' or family's own medicine cabinets," Dr. Drew said. So while you're talking to your teen about resisting peer pressure when it comes to illegal street drugs, don't overlook the danger that could be conveniently located in your bathroom.

What you can do

Talk to your kids! "The sooner the better," Dr. Drew said. "There's no lower age limit for when you should talk about substance, in my opinion. There are tons of opportunities in pop culture to discuss these things."

Dr. Drew says that the difficulty is in conveying to your children and teens that prescription drugs are no joke. "Every kid has a friend who has been on psychostimulants since he was five," Dr. Drew said. "Convincing kids that there is a danger is a difficult task."

Still, it's your job to talk to your tween or teen and to keep the prescription drugs in your home unavailable.

Dr. Drew is a great man, one who really wants to help people. Hopefully his celebrity status will help give him some clout when trying to help teens and tweens. I am sure he too would think a good online drug class couldn’t hurt.

In Great Britain they treat heroin addiction by prescribing legal methadone. In the United States the drug Suboxone serves a similar purpose.

Addiction to prescription painkillers is reduced when the individual is given consistent treatment with the drug Suboxone (buprenorphine plus naloxone), according to the first randomized large-scale clinical trial focused on the use of medication for treating prescription opioid abuse.

Pain medications are helpful when taken as prescribed; however, they have high abuse liability, especially when taken for nonmedical reasons. Researchers in this study set out to examine whether the FDA-approved medication Suboxone could help fight this growing problem.

“The study suggests that patients addicted to prescription opioid painkillers can be effectively treated in primary care settings using Suboxone,” said National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. “However, once the medication was discontinued, patients had a high rate of relapse — so, more research is needed to

Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine to reduce opioid craving plus naloxone, which causes withdrawal symptoms in a person addicted to opioids if Suboxone were taken by a route other than orally, as prescribed.

This combination was developed specifically to prevent abuse and diversion of buprenorphine and was one of the first to be eligible for prescription under the Drug Addiction Treatment Act, which allows specially trained doctors to prescribe certain FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid addiction.

Most research focused on treating opioid dependence has been conducted with heroin-addicted patients at methadone clinics. As a result, there has been limited information on how to treat those addicted to prescription painkillers, especially in the offices of primary care doctors. To help remedy this issue, the National Institute on Drug Abuse started the Prescription Opioid Addiction Treatment Study (POATS) in 2007, which was carried out at 10 treatment sites around the country.

In the study, over 600 treatment-seeking outpatients addicted to prescription opioids received Suboxone along with brief standard medical management, in which doctors evaluated treatment effectiveness and suggested abstinence and self-help methods. Half of the subjects also received varying degrees of counseling provided by trained substance abuse or mental health professionals.

Results showed that approximately 49 percent of participants experienced a reduction in prescription painkiller abuse during the extended (at least 12-week) Suboxone treatment.

However, when Suboxone was discontinued, this success rate dropped to 8.6 percent.

Reductions in abuse were observed regardless of whether the patient reported suffering chronic pain, and participants who participated in intensive addiction counseling did not have higher success rates when compared to those who did not receive counseling.

According to an annual national government survey, an estimated 1.9 million people in the United States meet abuse or dependence criteria for prescription pain relievers. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that annually, more people die from prescription painkiller overdoses than from heroin and cocaine combined.

There is no doubt that dependency on prescription medication and their abuse are on the rise. Suboxone, like any potentially addictive medication needs to be regulated.