Vanderbilt University Medical Center: New Approaches to Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

In the United States, one infant is born every 15 minutes with withdrawal symptoms after being exposed to opioids before birth -- Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) -- according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. Typically, affected neonates must remain hospitalized, usually in neonatal intensive care units, for monitoring and management of opioid withdrawal symptoms. Hospital length of stay (LOS) for these neonates averages 17-23 days. In this podcast featuring Dr. Stephen Patrick, an attending neonatologist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt and Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy, discusses how he’s improving outcomes for opioid-exposed infants and women with substance-use disorders and reduced NAS infant’s LOS.