UT Medical Center Doctor to Discuss Opioid Dependency during Pregnancy on CNN Tonight

Dr. Craig Towers of UT Medical Center will be featured on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" tonight to discuss opioid dependency among pregnant women.

UT Medical Center shared the news on Facebook, along with photos of a recorded interview between Towers and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Towers made local headlines about a year ago in support of women undergoing opiate detox during pregnancy, which is the focus of tonight's discussion, according to the post.

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The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists once said that detoxing should be avoided. But Towers, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, presented research in 2016 that argued against this stance.

The study focused on more than 300 women who were detoxed while pregnant. No fetuses were affected by the detox.

ACOG's recommendation at the time was for pregnant women to stay on maintenance drugs, such as methadone or Subutex, during pregnancies and to detox after. Towers noted that these guidelines were based on old studies with small samples, according to a previous News Sentinel article.

Towers had access to a larger data set of women who detoxed against medical advice. One third of these women detoxed while in jail.

No bad outcomes were discovered, except for two women who lost babies for reasons unrelated to detoxing. Because of his research, ACOG amended its guidelines.

"Erin Burnett OutFront" begins at 7 p.m. tonighton CNN. According to the medical center's Facebook post, the interview will discuss how Towers is "pioneering change, showing that women with opioid use disorder can be successfully detoxed during pregnancy and deliver healthy babies."

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/health/2018/08/17/ut-medical-center-doctor-newborn-drug-opioid-dependency-cnn-tonight/1018410002/