Study finds newborn opioid withdrawal rates show evidence of stabilizing

Rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) have plateaued after 20 years of increasing frequency across the country, according to a new study published in Health Affairs. NAS is a withdrawal syndrome experienced by some opioid-exposed newborns after birth.

The National Institutes of Health-funded study led by Ashley Leech, PhD, assistant professor of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), finds that rates of NAS per 1,000 live births stabilized in 2016 after peaking in 2014 at the beginning of a surge in opioid-related deaths in the United States.

“Evidence is beginning...