Research

Our research team, led by Dr. Julie Gaither, has been investigating the impact of the opioid crisis on infants, young children, and adolescents for a decade. Our initial study, focused on national trends in hospitalizations from opioid poisonings in the U.S. from 1999 though 2012. We followed this research with a study examining trends in pediatric deaths from opioids from 1999 through 2016. Most recently, Dr. Gaither published a study that focused specifically on pediatric deaths from fentanyl in the U.S. from 1999-2021.

Our team is currently working on projects that examine the clinical challenges and costs of caring for infants born with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome; this research is supported by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

We are also completing a study examining the circumstances behind pediatric poisonings in children, focusing in particular on family, community, and household risk factors.