Temporal trends in outcomes for infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal managed with the Finnegan scoring tool: Insights from the INFORM NOW Study
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate changes in hospital outcomes for infants with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) assessed by the Finnegan Tool before (10/1/2019 to 12/31/2019;pre-epoch) and after (7/1/2021 to 3/31/2022;post-epoch) publication of the 2020 AAP NOWS clinical report. STUDY DESIGN: This subgroup analysis included infants with NOWS assessed with the Finnegan Tool and enrolled in the INFORM NOW study (pre- and post-epoch 183 and 267 infants respectively). RESULTS: No differences were found between epochs in initiation or length of pharmacologic treatment(LOT), or length of stay(LOS). Outcomes were modified by opioid type: LOT was 20% shorter (aMR=0.80; 95%CI:[0.69,0.93]) and LOS was 16% shorter (aMR=0.84; 95%CI:[0.73,0.96]) for buprenorphine treated infants post- compared to pre-epoch, while LOT and LOS were longer in the post-epoch for those treated with methadone. CONCLUSION: There was no difference in outcomes before and after publication of the AAP report. However, the type of postnatal opioid did modify study results.
Authors
- Lori A. Devlin
- Stephanie L. Merhar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3331-4220)
- Denise C. Babineau (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9776-9080)
- Richard Hall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3264-3217)
- Abhik Das (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2722-0479)
- Walter K. Kraft (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5074-0141)
- Sara B. DeMauro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1647-4000)
- Lawrence Leeman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6839-2264)
- Namasivayam Ambalavanan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0731-9092)
- Gregory M. Sokol
- Sucheta Telang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7180-0350)
- E. Leeon Rhodes
- Brenda Poindexter
- Jonathan M. Davis
- Margaret Crawford
- Scott A. Lorch
- Augusto Santos Schmidt
Institutions
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (US)
- Tufts Medical Center (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
- University of Louisville (US)
- Thomas Jefferson University (US)
- Emory University (US)
- University of New Mexico (US)
- RTI International (US)
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
- RTI Health Solutions (US)
- Perinatal Institute (GB)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (US)
- Indiana University School of Medicine
- Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Perinatology
- Published
- 2026-04-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-026-02644-7
- Primary Topic
- Prenatal Substance Exposure Effects
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- University of Pennsylvania
- Emory University
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
- University of Louisville
- University of Cincinnati
- RTI International
- Thomas Jefferson University
- Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Research Institute
- Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
- Children's of Alabama
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development