The New York Times (5/1, D6, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reports, “The fast-growing abuse of prescription drugs has reached maternity wards in hospitals across the country, with the number of pregnant women addicted to opiate drugs — and the number of babies born experiencing withdrawal symptoms — rising sharply over the last decade.” Researchers “looked at two large databases that included a representative sample of patients from across the country and found that the number of pregnant mothers using opiate drugs jumped fivefold from 2000 to 2009.” The investigators found that “the number of infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome nearly tripled in the same period.”

USA Today (5/1, Szabo) reports that approximately “3.4 of every 1,000 infants born in a hospital in 2009 suffered from” neonatal abstinence syndrome, according to the study published online April 30 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. CDC researcher Andreea Creanga said, “The prevalence of drug use among pregnant women hasn’t changed since the early 2000s.” However, “the types of drugs that women are using is changing.”

The AP (5/1, Tanner) reports that altogether, “more than 13,000 US infants were affected in 2009, the researchers estimated.”

The Los Angeles Times (5/1, Kaplan) “Booster Shots” blog reports, “According to the federal data, 5.63 out of every 1,000 mothers who gave birth in a hospital in 2009 were addicted to opiates, up from 1.20 per 1,000 in 2000, the study found. Experts estimate that 60% to 80% of babies exposed to heroin or methadone in utero wind up addicted themselves.”

Bloomberg News (5/1, Ostrow) reports, “Newborns dependent on opiates were more likely to have increased irritability, tremors, respiratory problems, feeding issues and seizures and be born at low birth weight, the study showed.”

The CNN (5/1, Smith) “The Chart” blog reports, “The average hospital stay for a baby born withdrawing from painkillers is 16 days, according to the JAMA study, and 77% of the time, babies with NAS were charged under state Medicaid programs.”

Also covering the story were the Detroit Free Press (5/1, Erb), Reuters (5/1, Pittman), HealthDay (5/1, Mann), WebMD (5/1, Rubin),BBC News (5/1), and MedPage Today (5/1, Fiore).

Related Links:

— “Abuse of Opiates Soars in Pregnant Women,”Pam Belluck , The New York Times, April 30 , 2012.

HealthDay (4/30, Goodwin) reports, “Teens with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and teens who start using cigarettes, drugs or alcohol tend to share at least one personality trait: impulsiveness, experts say. But a new brain-imaging study of nearly 1,900 14-year-olds finds that the brain networks associated with impulsivity in teens with AD/HD are different compared to those who use drugs or alcohol.” The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that “from a neurological standpoint, AD/HD and substance use may not be nearly as closely tied as previously believed”

Related Links:

— “Teen Impulsiveness Has Different Sources in ADHD, Substance Use,”Jenifer Goodwin , HealthDay, April 30, 2012.

HealthDay (4/28, Preidt) reports, “Poor mothers who are single or who have depression are more likely to overfeed their infants by adding cereal to baby bottles, a practice that can lead to excess weight gain in infants,” according to a study presented at a pediatrics conference. “For the study, US researchers examined data from 254 mothers of infants in low-income, primarily Hispanic households and found that 24 percent of the mothers put cereal in baby bottles.” Notably, “those with depression were 15 times more likely to do so than those without depression.”

Related Links:

— “Low-Income Mothers May Overfeed Their Infants,”Robert Preidt , HealthDay, April 30, 2012.

HealthDay (4/30, Preidt) reports, “Special-needs youth with chronic medical conditions or developmental disabilities are at risk for anxiety and depression if they’re excluded, ignored or bullied by other young people,” according to a study presented yesterday at a pediatrics meeting. After examining questionnaires filled out by 109 special-needs children ranging in age from eight to 17 and their parents, “researchers found that being bullied and/or excluded by peers were the strongest predictors of increased symptoms of depression or anxiety in the young patients.”

Related Links:

— “Being Bullied Tied to Anxiety, Depression in Special-Needs Kids,”Robert Preidt , HealthDay, April 30, 2012.

The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune (4/30, Lyon) reports that neuropsychologist Sam Goldstein, PhD, of Salt Lake City, UT, has expressed “skepticism for recent findings that one in 47 children in Utah and one in 88 children in the nation fall on the autism spectrum. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he believes, is ‘extremely flawed.'” He may not be alone in his skepticism. “Critics question whether increased awareness accounts for the jump, or the expanded definition of autism spectrum disorders. Children may be being misdiagnosed, or parents may be seeking the diagnosis to access services.” Still other experts believe many youngsters may have always displayed such behaviors, but their behavior was not considered as a disability.

Related Links:

— “Are increases in autism rates in Utah, U.S. truly real?,”Julia Lyon , The Salt Lake Tribune, April 29, 2012.