Almost 70 percent of the opioid medications kept in homes where children are present do not keep the drugs secured, contributing to the rise in opioid overdose, according to a new study.
The study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is published in the March edition of the journal Pediatrics, WBAL radio reports.
The study talked to 681 adults across the country who had used opioid pain relievers during the past year and who had children aged 17 and younger living in their homes.
Of those, 31 percent reported they kept such medications safely stored from their children. Only 12 percent with children between the ages of 7 and 17 — the range most likely to ingest the drugs either accidentally or through experimentation — reported keeping their drugs safely stored.
The study's lead author, Eileen McDonald, told WBAL that many parents didn't understand the danger posed by drugs prescribed for pain such as Oxycodone, Percocet and Vicodin, that are part of the opioid epidemic in the United States. She suggested the medications be kept under lock and key.
Doctors, parents and children all should be educated about the dangers of opioids and smart packaging should be used, McDonald said.
"Our work shines a light on the pervasiveness of unsafely stored opioids in American homes with children," McDonald said. "Unsafely stored opioids can contribute to accidental ingestions among younger children and pilfering by older children, especially high school students. We know that teens who use these drugs recreationally frequently get them from homes where they are easily accessible, increasing their risk for addiction and overdose."
Fatalities from overdoses nearly doubled for children 17 and under between 1999 and 2015, WBAL reported.
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