BACKGROUND The prevalence of opioid abuse is increasing in North America. Opioid abuse during pregnancy can cause medical, obstetric and psychosocial complications. Neonates exposed to opioids in utero often develop the neonatal abstinence syndrome. Methadone maintenance therapy is the treatment of choice for maternal opioid dependency. There have been unsupported concerns that infants cared fo...

AIM To determine whether neonates born to mothers who are volatile substance abusers are at risk for an abstinence syndrome. METHODS A consecutive sample of infants born to volatile substance abusing mothers was studied over four years, in a university affiliated medical centre with a variable mix of primary, secondary, and tertiary care patients. Infants were clinically scored with the Finne...

AIM To compare the effects of fetal buprenorphine and methadone exposure during maintenance treatment of pregnant heroin dependent subjects. DESIGN AND SETTING A population based comparison of consecutive, prospectively followed buprenorphine-exposed pregnancies in Stockholm County, Sweden, to retrospectively analyzed consecutive methadone-exposed pregnancies. PARTICIPANTS All 47 pregnancie...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The present study examined the psychometric characteristics of the Neonatal Abstinence Scoring System (NASS; "Finnegan Scale") and the MOTHER NAS Scale (MNS). METHODS Secondary analysis of data from 131 neonates from the Maternal Opioid Treatment: Human Experimental Research (MOTHER) study, a randomized trial in opioid-dependent pregnant women administered buprenorph...

product/device. Abstract Infants exposed to opioids in utero and postnatally are at risk for developing withdrawal symptoms upon discontinuation of the drugs. This condition is known as the neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Different medications have been used to ameliorate the symptoms of withdrawal, most commonly opioids. Clonidine has also been evaluated both as an additive and alternative...

Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) refers to a constellation of signs that are present in some newborn infants resulting from the abrupt cessation of passive transfer of maternal opioids used during pregnancy. The classic NAS refers to infants born to mothers who used opioids during pregnancy, but the term has broadened to include infants whose mothers have used or abused other psychoactive sub...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of a universal maternal drug testing protocol for all mothers in a community hospital setting that experienced a 3-fold increase in neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) over the previous 5 years. STUDY DESIGN We conducted a retrospective cohort study between May 2012 and November 2013 after the implementation of universal maternal urine drug testing. All subje...