Not Just Adults

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Anchor lead: Adolescents experience opioid overdose and
need treatment, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Fewer than one in fifty adolescents who come to an emergency
department with opioid overdose and survive are offered recommended treatment
to help them avoid a recurrence, a study by Rachel Alinsky, an adolescent
medicine expert at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues has shown.

Alinsky: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that
adolescents with severe opioid use disorder should receive treatment that
includes medication and that’s consistent with what the standard of care is for
adults as well. It’s just that I think we talk a lot more about treatment in
adults and prevention in youth, and don’t spend as much time thinking about how
do we build a better treatment system and show that that treatment is available
for youth when it’s recommended. 
:25We’re seeing that more youth are being diagnosed with opioid use
disorder and there’s definitely an increased use.  :31

Alinsky notes that mortality due to opioids has increased
300% since 2000 in those 20 years of age or younger. At Johns Hopkins, I’m
Elizabeth Tracey.