Addiction In Children | Review of Opioid Addiction Webinar
Addiction In Children
This is a review of a webinar on addiction in children. The original webinar can be found here. It covers mainly the addiction in children of prescription drugs and the current treatment of opioid addiction in children with Suboxone.
I found the webinar on addiction in children very informative. It is geared towards Doctors who prescribe Suboxone (buprenorphine), but it is easy enough for a non-medical person to understand most of it. The webinar is about 35 minutes long. With the introduction along with the question and answer section, it runs close to an hour.
Addiction In Children Webinar Highlights
The talk on addiction in children covers the current problem with opioids in children and teens and then progresses to the use of suboxone. Here are some of the highlights:
- Children and adolescents use prescription opioids because of several reasons. They believe because they are prescribed by a doctor, that they are safe. Since they see so many adults using prescription narcotics, they feel they are safe to experiment with. Finally, they feel that since you don’t have to obtain the drug from a “drug dealer” that they are less of a problem and they will get into less trouble using these drugs. There seems to be less stigma using prescription pills compared to other drugs. All these contribute to the increase in opioid addiction in children.
- In 2000, there were about 1 million individuals addicted to opiates. The national survey on drug use and health in 2006 indicates this number at 2.4 million.
- There has been a push in the US during the last decade to treat pain better. This has resulted in more prescription drugs in the community and more addiction in children.
- Although the USA has 4.6% of the world’s population, 80% of the opiate supply is used here. 99% of the world hydrocodone is consumed in the USA.
- After alcohol and marijuana, prescription opioids are the most abused substances
- addiction in children comes from the fact 1 in 8 teens has used opioids recreationally before graduating from highschool and almost half of the new opioid users in 2001 were under 18. 60% of teens say prescriptions are easy to get from parents and others. Half of teen say opioids are easy to get from the Web or easy to get or steal from others (parents, friend’s parents, relatives,etc.)
- Opioid related hospital admissions in the 18-25 year old age group doubled from 1993 to 2002.
- Daily habits of prescription pills initially can be supported by a teen, but soon spiral out of control and can reach a $50 to $300 per day habit. When this happens, they move to heroin which is more pure (30 years ago, heroin used to be 7% pure, now it is 60% pure) and cheaper and this increases the addiction in children.
- In 2003, the cost of opioid addiction was 100 billion dollars
- Suboxone Clinics Treatment is approved for ages 16 and above, although younger children have been successfully treated.
Addiction in Children | Summary
There continues to be an increase in the use of opioids in children and teens from year to year. The cause of this is believed to be from several factors. Children see prescription pills as more safe and having less of a stigma than other drugs. Little do they know that progression of this to an addiction in children can have financial and many other consequences. Suboxone is one treatment for opioid addiction and both short and longer term treatment has been studied. Suboxone is able to be used to successfully treat addiction in children.
Find Professional Help With Opioid Addiction
Use our FREE services to find help. We have three directories: a Suboxone Doctor Directory, Methadone Treatment Clinics Directory, and A Drug Treatment Directory. These list will help you find drug addiction treatment in your area. Dr. Rich has more articles on drug addiction including: The Real Suboxone Cost and and Understanding What Is Methadone?
Other Resources
Alcohol and Drug Addiction Happens in the Best of Families brochure
Fetal Drug Addiction Information
