VIDEO: More and more children are poisoned with opioids from their parents

(NOTICIAS YA).-A new study shows a large increase in children's exposure to an opioid medication and with it, cases of poisoning.

According to the CNN post, more than 11,200 calls about children's exposure to buprenorphine, an opioid medication used to treat opioid use disorder, have been made to US poison control centers. Between 2007 and 2016, he found a new study.

"This is never prescribed for children younger than 6 years. It's a significant risk to them," said Henry Spiller, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center and an author of the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

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Dr. Jason Kane, associate professor of pediatrics and critical care at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital sees these numbers as an unintended consequence of medical therapy being given to those who need it.

Among the 11,275 exposed children, the exposure rate:

1. Increased by 215.6% from 2007 to 2010 (from 6.4 to 20.2)
2. Followed by a 42.6% decrease from 2010 to 11.6 in 2013
3. Before increasing from 8.6% to 12.6 in 2016

Buprenorphine is an opioid receptor stimulant and blocker, Spiller explained. As a result, it does not provide the same "high" as other opiates, but it is still an opiate and should be kept out of the reach of children.

Teenagers may not have the same risk as 5-year-olds, but they're not immune and the effects get worse when you start adding things like alcohol, maybe another medication or other things," Spiller said.

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The study authors expect that, with approximately 2.1 million people in the United States with an opioid use disorder and 11.5 million abusing prescription opioids:

Nearly a quarter of children under 6 who are exposed spend time in intensive care, noted Kane, who led a recent study that found the number of opioid overdoses among children has nearly doubled since 2004.

"This burden that we are putting on the healthcare system is completely preventable," he said. "With children accidentally poisoned by drugs that were not designed to be taken by them."

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The study authors recommend the prevention of drug exposure according to the age of the children. Citing the source, these are some measures to prevent inadvertent exposure of children and adolescents:

• Making unit-dose containers instead of a full bottle of pills would help.• Locking up medications may help keep teens out.• Approval of a buprenorphine subcutaneous implant in 2016 may also reduce children's access.• Dispose of unused medicines.• Keep child-resistant caps on containers.• Leave medicines in their boxes.• Place them in properly labeled bottles.

"Seven children under the age of 6 died as a result of accidental poisoning from this drug, which was present in someone's home, prescribed for the purpose of making another person better," Kane said.