Infants who are diagnosed with drug withdrawal after birth who are treated with medication as outpatients at home are treated three times longer than infants treated solely as inpatients, according to a new Vanderbilt study.
Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a drug withdrawal syndrome that occurs shortly after birth, and can occur when an infant is exposed to an opioid during the pregnancy.
The study, “Outpatient Pharmacotherapy for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome,” also found that the infants with NAS treated as outpatients were more likely than their inpatient counterparts to have more repeat visits to the emergency room in the six months post-discharge. The findings were published in The Journal of Pediatrics.