Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

The purpose of this study is to address the gap in maternal OUD treatment and infant neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome care. The research team will develop a treatment model and a set of strategies to provide evidence-based OUD treatment to postpartum mothers in NICUs. First, the investigators will conduct a needs assessment via in-depth qualitative interviews with NICU mothers and clinicians. Then, with the expertise of the advisory board, the the researchers will create a protocol for implementing maternal OUD treatment at the NICU bedside. The researchers will then implement the protocol in two partner NICUs and evaluate the acceptability and feasibility to patients, providers, and clinical, and administrative leaders. The goal of this research study is to integrate maternal mental health and substance abuse treatment in pediatric settings and to refine, test, and examine the acceptability and feasibility of applying the adapted model.

Infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) experience prolonged hospital stays and poor neurodevelopmental outcomes, in-part because of the lack of accurate, individualized, biologic assessments available to manage this increasingly common medical condition. The proposed study will define the molecular mechanisms that regulate the response to opioid withdrawal in the developing brain by focusing on three candidate microRNAs (let-7a, miR-146a, miR-192) that have been shown to respond to opioid exposure in animal models and adults, and are impacted in both my preliminary study of infants with NAS, and my human neural progenitor cell (NPC) design of opioid withdrawal. By determining the mechanism through which microRNAs impact NPC differentiation in opioid withdrawal, and determining whether exosomal salivary microRNA levels predict treatment dose and neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants with NAS, this study will enhance our knowledge of NAS-related biology and identify potential biomarkers that could improve medical care for this important medical condition.

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), is a common and costly problem in Alberta that affects approximately 250 babies per year exposed to drugs during pregnancy. Unfortunately, this has become more common in the last 10 years. Babies with NAS can be very difficult to care for with poor feeding, diarrhea, and extreme irritability. These babies often receive specialized care and medications in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), which leads to separation of mothers and babies at a time when it is most important that they be together. This separation is traumatic for families and expensive for the health and foster care systems, as babies often end up being cared for by governmental agencies. Recent research has shown that keeping mothers and babies together in a quiet, supportive environment in hospital, called 'rooming in', leads to a decreased need for NICU admission, decreased amount of time spent in the NICU, increased rates of breastfeeding, and an increase in babies going home with their mothers. This project will systematically introduce a program of 'rooming-in' to hospitals in Alberta to determine if the investigators can improve NAS care provided to babies and mothers. The goal is to decrease NICU admission and length of stay, increase the number of babies going home with mothers, increase breastfeeding rates, and increase the number of women enrolled in supportive programs for substance use. The investigators will also determine if this rooming-in model of care decreases health and societal costs associated with caring for babies with NAS.