The Pharmacokinetics of Oral Methadone in the Treatment of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
Completed
Conditions studied: Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
In brief
The chronic use of opiate medications during pregnancy is a major public health challenge. Prolonged exposure to opiates in utero may result in withdrawal symptoms in infants commonly referred to as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Signs of NAS may include irritability, high-pitched crying, muscle tightness, seizures, diarrhea, vomiting, poor feeding, and unstable body temperature. Many infants may be treated by supportive (non-pharmacological) therapy by minimizing stimulation, cuddling, responding promptly to hunger cues, and other comfort care. However, some infants continue to show severe symptoms of withdrawal despite these interventions. In these cases, infants may be treated with medications (pharmacological therapy). Although it has been several decades since the first descriptions of NAS, there still remains limited information with regards to the most effective treatment. We hypothesize that medical treatment protocols of NAS with methadone can be optimized by better understanding what the body does to the drug (the population-based pharmacokinetics of methadone).
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT01754324
- Run by
- Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
- People needed
- 20
- Starts
- 2012-12-01
- Expected to finish
- 2013-12-01
- Last updated by the study team
- 2014-06-13
Who can join
Age: any, up to 0. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.
You may qualify if…
- Chronic in utero exposure to opiates
- Term infant, greater than or equal to 37 weeks gestation
- Failure of non-pharmacologic treatment of NAS
- Infant meets criteria for pharmacologic treatment of NAS as determined by physical findings consistent with drug withdrawal and Finnegan scoring system
- The attending neonatologist chooses to treat the qualifying infant with oral methadone.
You may not qualify if…
- Prematurity
- Congenital Abnormalities
- Acutely ill neonates
- Confounding medical illness necessitating therapy with opiates other than for NAS
- Neonates whose only exposure to opiates were narcotics administered during labor
- Infants who are wards of the state
Where it is running
- The University Hospital — Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
- Mercy Hospital Anderson — Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.