In adolescents, there's a risk where we start to see an increased risk of suicide attempts, just as a part of adolescence, but if this is in the home, this is a really potent drug. They may attempt to add this in or use this as whatever drug they're using for suicide attempts.

Henry Spiller

Categorized in : Health News

Read MoreThe increase's not just that there's more attempts, Read MoreThe increase's also the outcomes ; the severity is increasing, as well.

If you look at the effects, it's not really the expected opioid effects, we see seizures, tachycardia [ rapid heartbeat ], hypertension, agitation. If it were an opiate, we would expect respiratory depression.

We just started to see cases, really serious cases. by Henry Spiller

We just started to see cases, really serious cases.

Individuals who choose to use kratom need to be aware of the potential risks. Just because it is currently classified as an herbal supplement does not mean that it is regulated or that it is safe.

As physicians, we need to educate pregnant women on the risks of kratom use during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

This is never prescribed for children under 6. It is a significant risk to them, we're not quite sure why it stands out so much. Perhaps the parents who have this may not think it's as risky as their other opiates because it doesn't have the big effect that the other opiates do for them.

In adults, the respiratory depression, the part that slows the breathing and you stop breathing, is limited, and so there's a lot less respiratory depression in adults, that's why it was felt to be safer. Unfortunately, in very young children under 5, preschoolers, toddlers, infants... that protection isn't there, and they do get this respiratory depression. It does affect their breathing.

It was surprising that adolescents were actually using it for abuse. It's very specific, you have to be in a program to get this. It's carefully managed. It's not widely available. ... It is available on the street, but essentially, the majority of this is from these management programs and someone's in therapy, someone in the house, them or a family member.

You'd be hiding under a rock if you didn't realize there's a big opioid crisis going on, and this is one of the treatments for that addiction, a number of these programs are trying to expand to accommodate a lot of these opiate-addicted patients, so I would expect to see more of this.

This burden we're putting in the health care system is entirely preventable, these are children who do not need a hospital if not but for the fact that they were accidentally poisoned by medications that were not designed to be taken by them.