{"id":638,"date":"2019-02-04T09:23:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T17:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drugalcoholrehabnow.com\/blog\/?p=638"},"modified":"2019-02-04T09:23:27","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T17:23:27","slug":"opioids-are-killing-children-and-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drugalcoholrehabnow.com\/blog\/index.php\/opioid-addiction\/opioids-are-killing-children-and-teens\/","title":{"rendered":"Opioids are killing children and teens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For those with even a cursory\nknowledge of United States domestic news will have heard of the opioid\nepidemic. This quiet problem has become massive in terms of its scale, and is\nlikely to become along the biggest health crises to be seen in the US in modern\ntimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pills\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The problem, though, appears to be\ngetting worse: previously thought to be contained mostly to adults, it appears\nthat this might\nnot be the case<\/a>. Through accidental\noverdoses, suicide and homicide, many children and teenagers are being killed\ndue to the crisis \u2013 with some 9,000 children and teenagers dying from opioid\npoisoning from 1999 to 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More worryingly, though, is the fact\nthat these numbers have tripled in the 18-year spell announced above. This\nharrowing news was found by Yale University researchers, who released a new\nreport about the scale of youth deaths due to the opioid crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, the findings also concluded\nthat the epidemic shows no signs of slowing down, and that unless there are\nmajor collaborations with legislators, health officials and parents, it\u2019s going\nto be hard to put an end to this immense problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, it was found that around just\none in five of the deaths were intentional, with the Journal of the American\nMedical Association finding that children and teens are often unintended\nvictims. Around 5% of the victims came from suicide, and around 2% from homicide.\nTragically, a quarter of the children under the age of 5 were homicide victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\ngrowing fear<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Yale research experts found\nthat over one third \u2013 365% – of deaths to teens aged 15-19 from 2014-2016 came\nfrom methadone. This was often found due to a parent or guardian using\nmethadone in their own lives to combat addiction or deal with pain. Researchers\nfound then that there was more methadone exposure due to it being such a common\npart of treatment today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without \u201cfurther safeguards\u201d being\nput in place, though, solutions are thin on the ground. With younger people far\nless likely to seek out aid and treatment, too, the numbers could be even\nhigher than is assumed. Sadly, the link was found to be much the same for\nadults: they start with medical pills, move to heroin itself and then\neventually move to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, leaving them with little\nchance of survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Marc Fishman of the Jon Hopkins\nUniversity School of Medicine, a well-respected addiction psychiatrist for\nyoung people and young adults, said: “Even though we’re treating patients\nbetter with medication, it\u2019s a wake-up call to be as careful with these\nmedications than any others,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the National Institute for Drug\nAbuse found in their recent report that opioid misuse was at a 43-year high as\npart of their Monitoring the Future survey, the number of deaths is showing no\nsigns of slowing down. With around 14% of US high school students having been\nreported for misuse of prescription opioids, though, it\u2019s vital that something\nis done \u2013 and done soon \u2013 to ensure that usage can come down alongside death\nrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With over 17,000 opioid-related\ndeaths in 2017 from overdose alone, it\u2019s time that action was taken to help\nboth children and adults make a clean break from this life-gripping problem. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those with even a cursory knowledge of United States domestic news will have heard of the opioid epidemic. This quiet problem has become massive in terms of its scale, and is likely to become along the biggest health crises to be seen in the US in modern times. The problem, though, appears to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opioid-addiction"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t