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Listen Places with high rates of joblessness also seem to have outsized problems with drug-dependent newborns. That’s the central finding in a new Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday.

Listen This year may prove to be a turning point for Tennessee’s crisis of drug-dependent babies. Preliminary figures on the number of cases show they’re down roughly 10 percent — the first meaningful drop since the state started keeping track, partially as a result of a budding philosophical change in treatment.

Listen Not all drug dependent babies in Tennessee are using the speech and behavioral therapy they’re eligible for. That’s a key takeaway from a study published this month that confirms a long-held concern about infants who spend their first few weeks of life withdrawing from opioids.

Listen The Trump Administration’s top doctor overseeing the opioid crisis says Tennessee has led the nation in tracking and responding to drug dependent babies. He’s in Nashville along with First Lady Melania Trump for an event on neonatal abstinence syndrome at Vanderbilt.

Listen The tide may be starting to turn on the number of drug-dependent babies in Tennessee. After an alarming 5-year rise, the number of infants going through withdrawals from opioids is down by more than a quarter from the same point last year.

Listen Tennessee hospitals may be too quick to send home babies born dependent on opioids. New research from Vanderbilt finds babies that are discharged early to finish weaning at home end up in treatment three times as long and are more likely to make a trip to the emergency room.