Drug detox with follow-up treatment during pregnancy reduces fetal health risks

lies in the high number of pregnant patients who successfully detoxed. It also provided some insight into opioid detox and addiction treatment pathways for pregnant women.

They suggested that the most effective way to reduce the incidence of NAS is to combine drug detox and behavioral health addiction treatment programs to create long-term treatment plans for pregnant women once they have gone through drug detox.

The cost of treating a single newborn with NAS in Tennessee was $63,000 as of 2011. The annual costs amount to more than $60 million for the state, which “easily overshadows” the expenses associated with establishing these long-term addiction treatment programs, researchers stated.