According to a study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on January 18 in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), there exists a possible link between opioid prescription rates and a birth defect, gastroschisis.
The federal report warned that opioid use might be the reason for the rise in a disastrous birth defect in babies which might cause their intestines to be on the outside of their body at birth. Though the study did not find any causal link, researchers noticed disturbing rates related to the opioid birth defect in areas where opioid prescription rates were high. Gastroschisis is a condition in which babies are born with their intestines on the outside of their bodies, extruding through a hole in the abdominal wall. There are some cases in which life-threatening stomach and liver complications were observed, often requiring the need for surgery; post-surgery children were found to suffer from eating and digestive disorders. The first report from CDC came out in January 2016 regarding increasing gastroschisis birth defect rates based on information from last two decades but failed to suggest a reason for the increased defect rates. This recent report was based on surveillance data from 20 state programs conducted between 2006 and 2010, and from 2011 through 2015. The CDC found that gastroschisis was 1.6 times more prevalent in counties with high opioid prescription rates as compared to areas with low opioid prescription rates.
A report issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) last November, indicated opioid caused the largest number of deaths last year (72,000) nationwide. Opioid lawsuits are consolidated into a multidistrict litigation MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) overlooked by Judge Polster in the Northern District of Ohio.
