Study: Pediatric Opioid Exposure Declining but Still Problematic

Fewer kids are accidentally or intentionally swallowing prescription painkillers overall, but that doesn't mean the problem is solved.

U.S. poison control centers received more than 188,000 calls regarding pediatric opioid exposure between January 2000 and December 2015, according to a new study published Monday in Pediatrics. This translates to 32 calls each day on average, meaning a call every 45 minutes.

Pediatric opioid exposures grew 86 percent from 2000 to 2009 but dipped afterward, save for buprenorphine exposure, which saw an increase the last few years of the study. Buprenorphine -- what some may know as Buprenex or Butrans -- is mostly used to treat addiction to heroin and other opioids. Nearly half of pediatric exposures to buprenorphine lead to hospital admission.

Study author Dr. Marcel Casavant told the Washington Post that numerous factors could have led to the overall exposure decrease, from growing awareness of safe medication storage practices to prescription drug monitoring programs across states.

"We are not quite sure, and so it would be good to try to sort out of all the things that we are trying, which ones are the most effective and how can we spend more time doing that," Casavant told the Washington Post.

For the purposes of the study, which used data from the National Poison Data System, children were characterized as younger than 20 years old. Teenagers, the researchers found, were more likely to use opioids intentionally, and during the study, suspected opioid-related suicides ticked up more than 50 percent in teenagers.

Most exposures in the study, specifically 60 percent, were in children under age 5; 30 percent were in teenagers. Hydrocodone brought in the most calls to U.S. poison-control centers, at 29 percent, compared to oxycodone at 18 percent and codeine at 17 percent.

"While overall rates of exposure to opioids among children are going down, they are still too high," study author Dr. Gary Smith said in a news release. "We need to continue to examine our prescription practices and to increase education to parents about safe ways to store these medications at home to keep them out of the hands of children."

Researchers want prescription opioids to be packaged in single doses or blister packs versus bottles, since this could lower the likelihood of accidental overdoses.

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David Oliver is Associate Editor, Social Media at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, or send him an email at doliver@usnews.com.