Number of Pa. newborns addicted to opioids is skyrocketing, report says
Hospitals across Pennsylvania are battling surging rates of opioid-addicted babies and mothers, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
In 2015, 2,691 newborns were hospitalized in Pennsylvania for substance-related problems, which amounts to about 2 percent of the 138,000 infant hospitalizations.
The rate increased by 250 percent from 2000 to 2015, when nearly 20 out of every 1,000 newborn hospital stays were a result of drug use. Eighty-two percent of the time, the babies were born addicted to the opioids their mothers abused.
The problem is expensive. Caring for babies born with substance abuse issues added 27,835 hospital days in 2015 statewide, the report states. Those stays cost taxpayers an extra $20.3 million, according to the data.
“The amount of money being spent to take care of these patients is staggering,” said Dr. Michael England, director of the pregnancy recovery center at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC. “We are still in the thick of the problem. It is an epidemic, and it is finally starting to get a lot of recognition across the country.”
In Allegheny County, 20 out of every 1,000 neonatal hospital stays were substance-related. In Westmoreland County, that figure rose to 31 of every 1,000, according to the report.
“These findings stress the alarming impact that substance use problems have on new mothers and babies in communities across the commonwealth,” Joe Martin, the council's executive director, wrote in a statement.
The report provided data about mothers and drug abuse: Of 4,615 maternal hospital stays related to substance abuse, 52 percent involved opioid pain pills or heroin, or both. In 2015, about 17 out of every 1,000 maternal hospitalizations involved opioids — an increase of 510 percent from 2000.
England attributed the abuse increase to over-prescription of opioid medication for chronic pain and aggressive marketing from pharmaceutical companies. He said a rise in physician awareness of the problem is starting to slow the prescription trend, but some addicts are turning to accessible, cheap street drugs like heroin.
The recovery center at Magee, which opened in 2014, offers prenatal and obstetric care, mental health counseling, social workers and opioid maintenance therapy with the drug buprenorphine, which is used to treat addiction.
England said the center plans to use state grant money to expand to satellite offices across the region.
“The state recognizes that there are not yet enough treatment centers in Pennsylvania,” he said.
Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991 or bschmitt@tribweb.com.
