Hospital: Rise in babies born drug-addicted The number of babies
born addicted to opiates spiked sharply in 2010 and 2011,
according to a study at St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in
Newburgh. Twenty-four babies with narcotic abstinence syndrome,
also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome, were admitted to the
hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during that period,
compared with 13 in 2008-2009, and an average of three a year
from 2000 to 2007, the study said. The drugs that are
responsible vary, although the number caused by prescription
medication and buprenorphine — a drug used as a painkiller or to
treat opiate addiction — jumped in 2009-2010. Other studies have
shown a similar increase in the number of opiate-addicted babies
— one published in the Journal of the American Medical
Association on April 30 found that the number of infants born in
opiate withdrawal has tripled over the past decade — and
nationwide, prescription drug and heroin abuse are growing
problems in many communities. The study at St. L