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Opiate Addiction
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Prescription Opioids
A number of opioids are prescribed by doctors to relieve pain. These include hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, and codeine. While many people benefit from using these medications to manage pain, prescription drugs are frequently diverted for improper use. In 2012 and 2013, almost 55% of people who misused prescription painkillers got them from a friend or relative for free, and approximately 20% got them from a doctor. As people use opioids repeatedly, their tolerance increases and they may not be able to maintain the source for the drugs. This can cause them to turn to the black market for these drugs and even switch from prescription drugs to cheaper and more risky substitutes like heroin.

Heroin
Heroin is a powerful opiate drug. Heroin looks like a white or brownish powder, or as the black sticky substance known on the streets as “black tar heroin.” It is diluted with other drugs or with sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine before injecting, smoking, or snorting. 

*Source -
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 

Public Children Services Association of Ohio - 2016 Opiate Epidemic Child Protection Brief
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Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
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Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy. These effects can include physical problems and problems with behavior and learning. Often, a person with an FASD has a mix of these problems.

Types of FASDs
Different terms are used to describe FASDs, depending on the type of symptoms.
  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): FAS represents the most involved end of the FASD spectrum. Fetal death is the most extreme outcome from drinking alcohol during pregnancy. People with FAS might have abnormal facial features, growth problems, and central nervous system (CNS) problems. People with FAS can have problems with learning, memory, attention span, communication, vision, or hearing. They might have a mix of these problems. People with FAS often have a hard time in school and trouble getting along with others.
  • Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder (ARND): People with ARND might have intellectual disabilities and problems with behavior and learning. They might do poorly in school and have difficulties with math, memory, attention, judgment, and poor impulse control.
  • Alcohol-Related Birth Defects (ARBD): People with ARBD might have problems with the heart, kidneys, or bones or with hearing. They might have a mix of these.

*Source - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)
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Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), sometimes referred to as prenatal drug exposure or perinatal substance use, is a group of problems that occur in a newborn who was exposed to addictive opiate drugs while in the mother’s womb.

Neonatal abstinence syndrome occurs because a pregnant woman takes opiate or narcotic drugs such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone (Oxycontin) methadone or buprenorphine. These and other substances pass through the placenta that connects the baby to its mother in the womb. The baby becomes addicted along with the mother.  At birth, the baby is still dependent on the drug. Because the baby is no longer getting the drug after birth, symptoms of withdrawal may occur.

Alcohol and other drugs use during pregnancy can also cause problems in the baby.  Babies of mothers who use other addictive drugs (nicotine, amphetamines, barbiturates, cocaine, marijuana,) may have long-term problems. However, there is no clear evidence of a neonatal abstinence syndrome for these drugs.


*Source - Medline Plus.gov - Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome 

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Photos used under Creative Commons from Live to Create Photography, Landworth