Reply

We appreciate the comments of Chasnoff and Gardner and the opportunity for discussion. The purpose of our article is not “standardizing the clinical definition of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS).” Instead, the purpose is to develop a standardized bedside definition of opioid withdrawal in the neonate – one that is applicable to both NOWS and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). This is an important distinction, as our findings center on the creation of standardized clinical criteria for the diagnosis of opioid withdrawal, recognizing it as a continuum of variable expression in neonates.

source https://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(22)00336-5/fulltext?rss=yes