More children and teens are being hospitalized for opioid poisonings, according to a new study.
The overall rate of hospitalizations more than doubled from 1997 to 2012, climbing from 1.40 per 100,000 people ages 1 to 19 years old to 3.71, the study published Monday found.
The increase in hospitalizations mirrors a sharp uptick in the use of prescription painkillers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that opioid prescriptions have nearly quadrupled since 1999.
The study, published in the Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics, analyzed hospital discharge records from 1997 to 2012.
Researchers found that opioid poisonings increased the most among children ages 1 to 4 years old. Those hospitalizations increased by 205 percent, from 0.86 to 2.62 per 100,000 children.
Hospitalizations of teens ages 15 to 19 years old rose 176 percent from 3.69 to 10.17 per 100,000 patients, the study said.
The study noted that there are limitations to the findings, including that doctors or nurses may have put in the wrong diagnostic code.
The study comes as the White House and Congress have moved in recent months to tackle the opioid epidemic. More than 70 people die each day from a prescription painkiller or heroin overdose, the CDC said.
President Obama signed into law last month the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which aimed to increase use of the overdose antidote naloxone and expand treatment options for addicts.
The Food and Drug Administration this year approved the use of a pediatric dose of the powerful opioid Oxycontin for children if they meet certain criteria.
