A collaborative program across units at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is changing the way nurses and doctors care for newborns diagnosed with drug withdrawal symptoms at birth, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

No single approach will end the epidemic of fatal overdoses caused by addiction to opioid painkillers and heroin that is ravaging this country, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, Adm. Brett Giroir, MD, warned Tuesday during a panel discussion in a packed lecture hall at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

In areas of the country disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis, treatment programs are less likely to accept patients paying through insurance of any type or accept pregnant women, a new Vanderbilt study found.

Infants who are diagnosed with drug withdrawal after birth who are treated with medication as outpatients at home are treated three times longer than infants treated solely as inpatients, according to a new Vanderbilt study.