Experts say that the more prescription drugs that are around the house, the more likely a curious child is to ingest them.
Every day there are new alarming news articles about the epidemic of drug abuse in the suburbs, particularly in the use of prescription pain medications.
In a recent article in the Journal of Pediatrics, an unrecognized consequence of this epidemic is that there is a 22% increase in accidental drug poisoning in children. With an increased number of pills and prescriptions in homes, there is simply an increased potential of access to dangerous medications by curious children.
Researchers from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati reviewed Poison Control data from 2001-2008 for children five years old or younger presenting to Emergency Departments (EDs) with an unintentional ingestion of a pharmaceutical agent. During this eight-year period, 544,133 children received ED care for such ingestions in the United States, a marked increase over the previous study.
The largest problem is children finding and ingesting medications on their own. The greatest increase is from prescription pharmaceuticals, particularly pain medications such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, sedatives such as benzodiazepines, and cardiac medications.
The authors concluded that the most likely explanation for this worrisome trend is a rise in the number of medications in homes. In 1998-1999 a survey found that 50% of adults had taken a prescription drug in the prior week, and seven percent had taken at least five. A decade later the numbers had increased to 55% and 11%, respectively.
Given substantial efforts at “poison proofing” medications, these results are disheartening. Although it is recommended that households with small children keep their medications in a locked cabinet, this is inconvenient and likely not a universal practice. Many may not understand the danger of even one pill to a small child, the potential harmful effects of over the counter medications or the frequency with which children explore medication cabinets.
In addition, with the current economic downturn leading to many grandparent/children/grandchildren households, there may be a risk simply because of the new living patterns and the number of older people on medications living with small children.
More children are exposed and more require urgent medical attention. Families need to review their own practices; safe storage in locked cabinets, avoidance of pill bottles out in the open, the use of safety bottles at all times, and discarding medications that are no longer in use. And, to be sure, have the national Poison Control number of 1-800-222-1222 readily available.
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Real Time Pain Relief
http://www.rtpr.com/site/db429f31
(510) 659-6330
cynthiamittel@gmail.com
