LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Dr. Stephen Patrick of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and colleagues, reporting online said that this "serves as a reminder that this is really a public health emergency that requires attention from multiple levels from the federal government, from state government, and from researchers."

Recent data have shown that about 16 percent of pregnant teens and about 7.5 percent of pregnant women ages 18 to 25 use illicit drugs. The majority of neonate withdrawal problems have been tied to maternal opiate use. Researchers point out that other drugs have also been implicated.

Patrick along with colleagues looked at data from the Kids' Inpatient Database and the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, both from 2000-2009. They found that the incidence of NAS rose significantly over that time, from 1.20 per 1,000 births to 3.39 per 1,000.

Maternal opiate use at delivery also increased during that period, jumping from 1.19 to 5.63 per 1,000 births.

"This observation is consistent with the trend of increasing opiate use across the U.S., which is not limited to illicit drugs," Patrick wrote. Researchers cited CDC data showing a quadrupling of sales and deaths related to opiate painkillers between 1999 and 2008.

Mothers were also shown to use opiates at the time of delivery were more likely to be covered by Medicaid than other insurance, and Medicaid was also the primary payee for the majority of hospital charges for NAS in infants.

As Medicaid is administered by the states, they "are in a unique position to be innovative in solutions to decrease the number of opiates that are used in the state and to make sure care is more efficient for babies after they are born," Patrick says.

As most were born to mothers who were entitled to financial help with their medical costs, the study said this was placing a serious burden on health budgets.

The researchers said many pregnant women were legitimately taking pain-relieving opiates on prescription, but warned that more must be done to find ways of protecting unborn babies from powerful drugs.

In addition, newborns with NAS are more likely than other newborns to have low birth weight, respiratory complications, feeding difficulties, and seizures, the researchers noted.

These complications cost the public. Mean hospital charges for these infants rose from $39,400 to $53,400 between 2000 and 2009, compared with a rise from $6,600 to $9,500 for all other hospital births over that time.

Patrick also noted that length-of-stay for these infants remained unchanged over that time, at a mean of about 16 days.

Patrick says that these findings "call for increased public health measures to reduce antenatal exposure to opiates across the U.S."

© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.