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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 7, 2018 (HealthDay News) – Although the herbal supplement is still available, its opioid-like effects have been significantly reduced. researchers say.
A case study of a baby boy exposed to kratom during his mother's pregnancy – only the second American case reported – a different trend towards opioid painkillers such as morphine, heroin and oxycodone (OxyContin), said study author Dr. Whitney Eldridge.
"I think mothers are becoming aware of the dangers of using prescription and non-prescription opioids during pregnancy," said Eldridge, a neonatologist at Morton Plant Hospital and St. Joseph's Women's Hospital, both in Florida.
"As opioid use among pregnant women has increased, they have seen the possibility of a possible safe, legal, non-opioid alternative for opioid withdrawal, and its opioid-like properties are not-advertised," Eldridge added.
In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published a report on the role of opioids in the detection and management of opioids.
But controversy over kratom – which is sold as a dietary supplement, typically to manage pain and boost energy – remains, as it continues to be a non-opioid remedy for opioid withdrawal. Non-opioid alternatives to treat opioid dependence continues to be researched and voted, experts said.
The case study, published online Nov. 7 in the journal Pediatrics, centered on a newborn boy whose mother had a seven-year history of oxycodone, but who had successfully completed drug rehabilitation. She had last used oxycodone two years before her baby was born, and her urine test was negative for drug use.
Kratom – which grows naturally in the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Thailand – is less potent than morphine and does not slow breathing. Goal 33 hours after his birth, the symptoms of opioid withdrawal, including sneezing, jitteriness, excessive suck, scratching at the skin around his face, and irritability.
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