The outbreak of Covid-19 presented many dangers for children, and a new study suggests increased illicit substance ingestions were among them. Lead study author Brittany Raffa, MD, clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the UNC School of Medicine, talks with CNN Health about the overall stress and parental substance use that contributed to the increase.
The outbreak of Covid-19 presented many dangers for children, and a new study suggests increased illicit substance ingestions were among them.
In the first month of the pandemic in 2020, a 25% increase in overall ingestions occurred among children under 6 years old in the United States, according to the study published Friday in JAMA Network Open.
Those numbers grew by 1.8% more per month than they did before the pandemic, the study said.
“The immediate and sustained increase in opioids ingestions occurred during the largest ever rise in adult overdose deaths, largely driven by synthetic opioids,” said lead study author Dr. Brittany Raffa, a clinical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the UNC School of Medicine and a National Research Service Award primary care research fellow.
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