Triggered by a national epidemic of opioid painkiller abuse, the number of babies born with opioid withdrawal symptoms quadrupled in the United States between 1999 and 2013.
That's the finding from a study of nearly 30 million births across 28 states, tracked by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC team said better addiction-prevention efforts "are needed to reduce inappropriate prescribing and dispensing of opioids" to curb this increase in what's medically known as "neonatal abstinence syndrome."
Common opioids of abuse include prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and fentanyl, as well as illicit opioids such as heroin.
Neonatal abstinence syndrome is an increasingly familiar sight in hospitals caring for newborns across the United States, the CDC researchers said.
Newborns with the condition experience opioid withdrawal symptoms such as "tremors, increased muscle tone [rigidity], high-pitched crying and seizures," the researchers said. Affected babies can also have trouble with feeding and experience fluctuations in body temperature.
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