Abstract
The incidence of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) is increasing due to more mothers using illicit drugs. This results in an increase in costs and resources for the healthcare system. Newborns with NAS might experience withdrawal symptoms that can cause pain, distress, and may potentially increase the risk of future health complications. It is therefore important to find effective treatments that can alleviate NAS. Various non-pharmacological treatments are used in conjunction with pharmacological treatments to reduce the length of hospital stay and duration of drug treatment. The objective of our review is to assess the safety and efficacy of acupuncture. PubMed, and Google scholar were searched using the terms: ‘acupuncture’, ‘acupressure’, ‘auricular therapy’, ‘infant’, ‘neonatal abstinence syndrome’, ‘complementary medicine’, and ‘neonatal withdrawal’. We included eight studies examining safety and efficacy of acupuncture for NAS. Results showed that acupuncture is safe. However, its efficacy is inconclusive and more studies are needed to confirm acupuncture’s efficacy as a treatment for NAS.
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