Researchers See Possible Link Between Opioids and Congenital Anomaly

NEW YORK (AP) – Health officials are studying a possible link between prescription opioids and a horrible conbad anomaly.

When a baby is born with the intestines hanging outside the stomach, this is called gastroschisis, due to a hole in the abdominal wall. Most are repaired by surgery.

About 1,800 such cases are reported annually in the United States, but their numbers have increased and officials do not know why.

The disease appears to occur more often when the mother is a teenager or smokes or drinks alcohol early in pregnancy, noted researchers.

But a study released Thursday found that cases were 60% more prevalent in countries that had the highest opioid prescribing rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study covered 20 states.

The study did not determine whether each mother was taking opioids and did not say that opioids caused birth defects. But this echoes previous research that had revealed a higher risk of conbad anomalies when mothers took opioid painkillers like oxycodone just before or in the early stages of pregnancy.

Also on Thursday, the CDC director and two other agency officials wrote a commentary in the journal Pediatrics, calling for a more in-depth study of the possible link between opioids and conbad anomalies.

"The report rings the early warning for the need to increase our public health surveillance across the full range of possible outcomes for the fetus, infant, and child during pregnancy, potentially related to these exhibitions, "wrote CDC director Robert Redfield and his two co-authors.

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