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Published Online: 15 September 2023

Health Services Use Among Children With Prenatal Substance Exposure or Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

Abstract

Objective:

Infants with prenatal substance exposure or neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) use health services more often than other children; however, little is known about their use of mental health services and psychotropic medication.

Methods:

The sample (N=1,004,085) consisted of infants born in 2016 in 38 states who were followed through the fifth year of life and enrolled each year in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Infants with prenatal substance exposure or NAS were identified with ICD-10 diagnosis codes; procedure and revenue codes documented their service use.

Results:

Rates of any mental health visit and of psychotropic medication use were higher among infants with prenatal substance exposure or NAS compared with infants without either condition; these patterns persisted during most years of the 5-year study.

Conclusions:

Infants’ elevated mental health services use through their first 5 years of life highlights the importance of early screening and subsequent engagement in school-based mental health interventions.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
Pages: 287 - 290
PubMed: 37711020

History

Received: 7 September 2022
Revision received: 24 July 2023
Accepted: 3 August 2023
Published online: 15 September 2023
Published in print: March 01, 2024

Keywords

  1. Opioids
  2. Neonatal abstinence syndrome
  3. Medicaid
  4. Services

Authors

Details

Notes

Send correspondence to Ms. West (kristina.west@hhs.gov).

Competing Interests

The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

Funding Information

Time for Ms. Natzke and Ms. Nguyen to conduct the analysis was funded by a contract with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.These views represent the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or Mathematica.

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