Twelve percent of low-income women in Pennsylvania filled an opioid prescription several days after a normal birth, even though most of them had no clear-cut medical need for an addictive painkiller, according to a new study.
About 2,600 of those women filled a second opioid prescription up to two months later, even though most had no pain-causing obstetrical condition in their medical records, and some had a history of non-opioid substance abuse, the University of Pittsburgh analysis found.
