? The purpose of this exploratory development grant is to determine the utility of infant massage for neonates of methadone maintained mothers who require treatment due to opiate withdrawal. Opioid dependence during pregnancy is a growing concern in society today. While methadone maintenance is the recommended treatment for pregnant opioid-dependent women there is concern is that the neonate will suffer from neonatal abstinence syndrome (MAS) requiring drug treatment and increased length of hospital stay. Infant massage, also known as proprioceptive tactile stimulation therapy (PTST) has been shown to be beneficial for certain populations of infants however, PTST has not been applied to methadone-exposed infants being treated for opiate withdrawal. Our goal is to determine the potential benefits of adding PTST to the standard treatment for methadone-exposed infants. We plan to study the effects of PTST on MAS, amount of withdrawal medication and length of hospital stay as well on neurobehavioral development using the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS). In this study, methadone exposed infants who require treatment for opiate withdrawal (n=70) will be randomly assigned to a standard treatment (SC) group or a standard care plus PTST group (PTST). PTST will be applied by trained massage therapist's blind to study group. We hypothesize that, compared to infants in the SC group, infants in the PTST group will show: (1) Lower NAS scores; (2) Less total amount of anti-withdrawal medications given to treat NAS; (3) Shorter neonatal length of stay in hospital; and 4) Better neurobehavioral performance on the NNNS. If successful, this study will lay the groundwork for a larger scale randomized clinical trial (RCT) that could change clinical practice by resulting in PTST as part of the standard care for methadone exposed infants. ? ? ?
