Triggered by a national epidemic of opioid painkiller abuse, the number of babies born with opioid withdrawal symptoms quadrupled in the United States between 1999 and 2013.
That's the finding from a study of nearly 30 million births across 28 states, tracked by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC team said better addiction-prevention efforts "are needed to reduce inappropriate prescribing and dispensing of opioids" to curb this increase in what's medically known as "neonatal abstinence syndrome."
More at HealthDay