Neonatal abstinence syndrome: Neurobehavior at 6 weeks of age in infants with or without pharmacological treatment for withdrawal

Use and abuse of prescription opioids and concomitant increase in Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), a condition that may lead to protracted pharmacological treatment in more than 60% of infants, has tripled since 2000. This study assessed neurobehavioral development using the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale in 6‐week old infants with prenatal methadone exposure who did (NAS+; n = 23) or did not (NAS−; n = 16) require pharmacological treatment for NAS severity determined by Finnegan Scale. An unexposed, demographically similar group of infants matched for age served as comparison (COMP; n = 21). NAS+, but not NAS− group, had significantly lower scores on the regulation ( p < .01) and quality of movement ( p < .01) summary scales than the COMP group. The NAS+ and NAS− groups had higher scores on the stress‐abstinence scale than the COMP group ( p < .05). NAS diagnosis (NAS +) was associated with poorer regulation and quality of movement at 6 weeks of age compared to infants without prenatal methadone exposure from the same demographic.