Fentanyl, URGENT! Parents, be warned, poisoning deaths surge among toddlers, adolescents: Study; Fentanyl is now the primary agent noted in the pediatric opioid crisis. Mirroring trends seen among
by Paul Alexander
adults, pediatric deaths from fentanyl began to increase substantially in 2013, resulting in a more than 30-fold increase in mortality between 2013 & 2021; a nearly 6-fold increase among children < 5
‘Fentanyl poisoning deaths among young people up to age 19 increased thirty-fold from 2013 to 2021, with small children and older teenagers leading the way, a new study has found.
Julie R. Gaither, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, reported the findings Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, analyzing federal data from Jan. 1, 1999, to Dec. 31, 2021.
SOURCE:
‘Fentanyl was implicated in 5194 of 13 861 (37.5%) fatal pediatric opioid poisonings between 1999 and 2021. Most deaths were among adolescents aged 15 to 19 years (89.6%) and children aged 0 to 4 years (6.6%). For all ages, 43.8% of deaths occurred at home, and 87.5% were unintentional. Coingestion of benzodiazepines was implicated in 17.1% of deaths’
‘In 1999, approximately 5% of the 175 deaths from opioids were from fentanyl. By 2021, 1557 (94.0%) of 1657 opioid deaths were attributed to fentanyl. Between 2013 and 2021, the mortality rate per 100 000 increased 3740.0%, from 0.05 (95% CI, 0.04-0.07) to 1.92 (95% CI, 1.82-2.01) (P < .001 for trend) (Figure). For adolescents aged 15 to 19 years, the mortality rate between 2018 and 2021 increased 289.8%, from 1.67 (95% CI, 1.49-1.84) to 6.51 (95% CI, 6.16-6.85) (P < .001 for trend); among children aged 0 to 4 years, it increased 590.0%, from 0.10 (95% CI, 0.06-0.15) to 0.69 (95% CI, 0.57-0.81) (P < .001 for trend). In 2021, fentanyl was responsible for the deaths of 40 infants and 93 children aged 1 to 4 years.’