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Assessment of the relative clinical utility of shortened Finnegan neonatal abstinence scoring tools

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Abstract

Objective

To assess the proposed shortened tools based on the Finnegan neonatal abstinence scoring tool (FNAS) for relative clinical utility.

Study design

Retrospective study comparing shortened tools with FNAS on need for treatment, medication initiation cutoff score agreement, and length of treatment in 369 infants with prenatal opioid exposure using estimated areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves, Pearson and Spearman correlations, and proportion correctly classified, sensitivity, and specificity.

Results

The tools by Gomez et al. and Chervoneva et al. are most predictive of the FNAS cut-off values to initiate treatment, have cutoff values that best align with the FNAS cutoff values, and strongly correlate with the FNAS (r ≥ 0.88 corresponding to treatment initiation, r ≥ 0.83 during first 10 days of treatment).

Conclusion

The tools of Gomez and Chervoneva demonstrated potential clinical usefulness by strongly associating with the need for treatment and monitoring the course of NAS therapy.

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Funding

The project described was supported by NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA043519) and the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR001998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tennessee, College of Nursing, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Jennifer Shearer Miller

  2. University of Kentucky, College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, USA

    Jennifer Shearer Miller & Henrietta S. Bada

  3. University of Kentucky, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lexington, KY, USA

    Markos Leggas

  4. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Memphis, TN, USA

    Markos Leggas

  5. University of Kentucky, College of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics, Lexington, KY, USA

    Philip M. Westgate

Authors
  1. Jennifer Shearer Miller
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  2. Henrietta S. Bada
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  3. Markos Leggas
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  4. Philip M. Westgate
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Contributions

JSM assisted in the acquisition of data, interpretation of findings, drafted the initial manuscript, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. HB conceptualized the study, coordinated and supervised data collection, and critically revised the manuscript. ML conceptualized the study and critically reviewed the manuscript. PW conceptualized and designed the study, carried out the analyses, interpreted the findings, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

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Correspondence to Jennifer Shearer Miller.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Miller, J.S., Bada, H.S., Leggas, M. et al. Assessment of the relative clinical utility of shortened Finnegan neonatal abstinence scoring tools. J Perinatol 42, 1051–1057 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-022-01419-0

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