--- title: Childhood Opioid Overdoses Nearly Doubled In Last 10 Years description: Child hospitalizations due to opioid and methadone overdoses nearly doubled between 2004 and 2015, according to a new study in Pediatrics. canonical: https://time.com/5186192/childhood-opioid-overdoses/ author: Amanda MacMillan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-05T18:39:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:34.458Z article:section: Health og:title: Childhood Opioid Overdoses Nearly Doubled In Last 10 Years og:description: A third of hospital admissions were in kids younger than 6. og:url: https://time.com/5186192/childhood-opioid-overdoses/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc45b9e60525b0588/698929ab97cdff6d436b4892/ambulance-kids-opioids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5121 og:image:height: 2881 og:image:alt: Paramedics taking patient on stretcher from ambulance to hospital og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Childhood Opioid Overdoses Nearly Doubled In Last 10 Years twitter:description: A third of hospital admissions were in kids younger than 6. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc45b9e60525b0588/698929ab97cdff6d436b4892/ambulance-kids-opioids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Childhood Opioid Overdoses Nearly Doubled in Last 10 Years > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: The Opioid Diaries | Parents: A Mom Finds Hope [Watch (HLS stream): The Opioid Diaries | Parents: A Mom Finds Hope](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fv3DEomd.m3u8) (1:50)  _Published 2018-02-22. The opioid crisis has changed families forever but Kristina remains hopeful that her son Billy will recover one day._ by [Amanda MacMillan](https://time.com/author/amanda-macmillan/) ## Amanda MacMillan Mar 5, 2018 6:39 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Amanda MacMillan](https://time.com/author/amanda-macmillan/) ## Amanda MacMillan Mar 5, 2018 6:39 PM UTC Child hospitalizations due to opioid overdoses nearly doubled between 2004 and 2015, according to a [new study in the journal _Pediatrics_](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/03/01/peds.2017-3335). Attempts to curb opioid use among adults have not curtailed this troubling trend, the authors say, and more efforts are needed to reduce opioid ingestion—both intentional and accidental—in kids. For the new study, researchers examined billing records from 49 children’s hospitals in 27 states and the District of Columbia. They found that between 2004 and 2015, there were a total of 3,647 opioid-related hospitalizations in 31 different hospitals. The percentage of those children who died after admission decreased over that time period, from 2.8% a year to 1.3% a year. But in the same time frame, the total number of hospitalizations nearly doubled: from 797 in the first three years of the study to 1,504 in the last three years. The number of hospitalizations that required admission to the pediatric intensive care unit also doubled. Of those patients, 37% required mechanical ventilators to assist breathing, and 20.3% required medication to raise dangerously low blood pressure. The majority of opioid-related hospitalizations were for older children ages 12 to 17, but one-third were for kids under age 6\. And while most children had overdosed on prescription opioids or illicit narcotics like heroin, a significant number of children under 6—about 20%—were treated for methadone overdoses. The makes sense, the study authors wrote in their paper, since adult prescriptions for methadone, a drug used to treat other opioid addictions, increased 559% from 2000 to 2007\. “The exploratory nature of young children makes them particular vulnerable to harm from accidental medication ingestion,” the authors wrote. Adolescents and teenagers, they added, are more likely to seek out drugs intentionally. The study authors, from the University of Chicago Medicine, the Children’s Hospital Association and Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, wrote that total financial costs associated with pediatric opioid overdoses also grew from 2004 to 2015\. The total number of hospital days attributed to children with opioid ingestion also “continues to increase over time at an alarming rate.” Insurance coverage for most of the patients in the study was provided by Medicaid. “In the current health care climate,” the authors wrote, proposed reductions of Medicaid funding “could have a profound impact” on hospitals’ ability to recuperate the costs associated with caring for these patients. Dr. Sheryl Ryan, a pediatrician at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, wrote in an [accompanying commentary article](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2018/03/01/peds.2017-4129.full.pdf) that overdose rates also continue to rise among adults. She also cites a recent estimate that put the total societal cost of opioid overdoses at $504 billion per year—nearly 3% of the U.S. gross domestic product. Those types of costs analyses support arguments for evidence-based, preventive programs that have been shown to reduce the use of opioids and other drugs by adolescents and young adults, Ryan wrote. And findings from the new study, she wrote, “highlight the need for pediatricians to engage in this critical work to combat the ongoing opioid crisis in our country.” ## Transcript People would ask me, so how many kids do you have, and what are they doing now in their lives? I did feel embarrassed in it, and maybe like, what did I do? I have two children. Yes, my son is addicted. Currently he's homeless, but I try not to say that with shame attached to it. [ MUSIC ] Billy was three when his father died from a drug overdose. And as he progressed and got into teenage years he just took off with drugs and alcohol and getting into trouble. And there have been times when I've gotten so caught up in my head not knowing if I would see him again. Is today gonna be the day that I'm gonna get the call that he's overdosed because that is a reality for so many. He was doing wonderful for about three months He started seeing his son again. He was clean, he was healthy. We really both thought that there was no way he was gonna go back. And he wound up relapsing. I don't give up hope. And I have to really narrow that down, like what does that mean for me? The fact that Billy's still breathing, the fact that he's still alive, just because he's where he is right now doesn't mean that it won't change. I have to believe that. 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