The Role of Preterm Birth in the Association Between Opioid Maintenance Therapy and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Pregnant women treated with methadone as opioid maintenance therapy are more likely than women treated with buprenorphine to deliver preterm. Preterm birth is associated with less risk of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). We sought to assess the role of preterm birth as a mediator of the relationship between in utero exposure to methadone and NAS compared with buprenorphine. METHODS:We studied 716 women receiving methadone or buprenorphine and delivering liveborn infants at Magee-Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2013-15). We implemented inverse probability weighted marginal structural models to isolate the role of preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation). Weights accounted for confounding by maternal age, race, insurance, parity, delivery year, marital, employment, hepat

SUBMITTER: Lemon LS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5902412 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature