Methadone Case Study

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Statement of the Problem Maguire (2013) stated that substance abuse has become a national problem that is on the brink of becoming an epidemic. With 3.1 million new users each year, Maguire (2013) said that a staggering 22 million Americans are dealing with substance abuse annually. Marijuana and non-prescription pain medications top the list of the fastest rising and most abused illicit drugs. When pregnant women seek prenatal care and are addicted to opiates, (heroin, morphine, oxycodone, or hydrocodone) the treatment of choice is methadone. Methadone is the only approved treatment for opioid addiction in pregnant women according to the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). In 1995, the United States federal government announced that methadone maintenance therapy would be the standard treatment in caring for pregnant women. They released their position statement that supported the methadone therapy practice. “Methadone mediates the addiction by reducing fluctuations in maternal serum opioid levels and protecting the fetus from repeated withdrawal episodes.” …show more content…

(2011) performed a retrospective cohort study of all deliveries at Mayo Clinic from 1998-2009, 26, 314 deliveries were followed. 167 of the women used prescription narcotics regularly throughout their pregnancy. They stated that they found narcotic use in 7.5 percent of all pregnancies which increased during the time period they studied. They discussed the symptoms of neonatal withdrawal syndrome appear 1 to 10 days after delivery. They reported the infants with the most severe withdrawal are the infants exposed to Methadone. Kellogg et al. (2011) discussed the increasing prevalence of narcotic use during pregnancy and the rise of NAS. The study showed that NAS is uncommon only 5.6 percent of the infants born to the 167 women were diagnosed with NAS from prescription narcotics. They advised physicians to see if the benefits outweigh the risks when prescribing narcotics to pregnant

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