The number of pregnant women who abuse or are dependent on opioids more than doubled over 14 years, according to a study published in Anesthesiology.
Researchers reviewed data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample that included nearly 57 million pregnant women admitted to U.S. hospitals for delivery between 1998 and 2011.
At the beginning of the study, 1.7 of every 1,000 women abused or were dependent on opioids at the time of labor, and in 2011, that number increased to 3.9 per 1,000 delivery admissions.
The increase was greatest in women 20 to 34 years old and the number of women of that age dependent on or abusing opioids grew from 1.8 to 4.5 out of every 1,000 deliveries.
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