In a story titled “Pain Pills’ Littlest Victims,” the Wall Street Journal (12/28, A3, Campo-Flores, Subscription Publication) reports how US hospitals, particularly those in Florida and Kentucky, are struggling to cope with infants born with an addiction to opioid-based prescription painkillers or anti-addiction medications. These babies must be hospitalized in the NICU because of powerful, long-lasting withdrawal symptoms. Adding to the difficulty of the situation is that there is no specific medical protocol for weaning these babies from such medicines, and hospitals are learning as they go. What’s more, nobody knows what the long-term effects will be on the babies.
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— “Pain Pills’ Littlest Victims,”Arian Campo Flores, The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2012.