Music therapy for infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

TitleMusic therapy for infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsCalabro J, Grocke D
JournalMusic and Medicine
Volume9
Issue1
Pagination37 - 44
Date Published2017
ISBN Number1943-863X(Electronic),1943-8621(Print)
Keywords*Drug Abstinence, *Drug Withdrawal, *Music Therapy, *Neonatal Period, Treatment Effectiveness Evaluation
AbstractNeonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) occurs after significant in-utero exposure to opiates, such as methadone and heroin but can also occur in post natal cases iotrogenically as weaning from analgesia and sedation can lead to withdrawal symptoms. Infants with NAS are often hospitalized for 4-6 weeks in a special care nursery, which is both expensive and detrimental to the parent-child bonding process. This study measured the effectiveness of recorded sedative music (RSM) and multimodal stimulation (MMS), inclusive of live singing for 25 infants with NAS. The infants were recruited by the hospital’s alcohol drug and pregnancy team (ADAPT) and randomly allocated into one of 4 groups. The study hypothesized that infants in the treatment groups would experience a shorter hospital stay, higher weight gain, more parent visits, a delay in the need for medication and less medication than control infants. The study also hypothesized that the treatment infants would have lower scores according to the Finnegan NAS Assessment [8] compared to control infants. Due to a small and skewed sample, theses hypotheses were not all supported. Although there were no significant quantitative results, slight trends were noted for reduced crying and regular respiration for infants in the treatment groups. These findings support previous research on implementing complementary treatment interventions for infants with NAS. It is suggested that RSM and MMS interventions can still be potentially useful interventions with this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)