Investigating Cannabidiol's Effectiveness to Mitigate the Adverse Consequences of Exposure to Neonatal Procedural Pain

Repeated painful procedures are associated with a multitude of effects on neurodevelopment in preterm infants, and current methods of neonatal pain management are unable to prevent the distress and long‐term changes induced by these procedures. Cannabidiol (CBD) may be particularly effective for neonatal pain management because it reduces pain unpleasantness ratings, mitigates biological stress responses, and has minimal side effects in adults. However, there is limited research on the effects of neonatal CBD exposure. The present study investigates the efficacy of CBD treatment in mitigating neonatal vocalization responses, as well as short‐ and long‐term behavioral outcomes following neonatal pain exposure. We show that neonatal pain exposure decreases USV emission and increases adult anxiety‐like behavior in male rats compared to neonatal touch exposure. Neonatal CBD treatment also decreases pups’ USV lengths and male pups’ USV counts compared to vehicle treatment but is unable to rescue the neonatal pain‐related increased anxiety‐like behavior in adulthood. Additionally, neonatal CBD increases baseline corticosterone levels in adult male subjects and decreases adult female body weight compared to vehicle. More research is needed to determine whether CBD may be a safe and effective neonatal pain management medication.