Purpose:  To compare infant and family demographics 
and weaning and discharge outcomes of infants with 
Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) treated with 
morphine only versus treatment with morphine and 
phenobarbital in a post-acute care hospital setting. 
Design: Electronic medical record review of 76 infants 
with NAS admitted to a pediatric post-acute hospital from 
local tertiary-care neonatal intensive care units.  
Descriptive statistics were calculated for the total group 
and compared for two weaning medication subgroups 
(morphine only (n=25) and morphine and phenobarbital 
(n=51)). 
Result: Thirty-nine (51%) infants were male and 49 (65%) 
were White, non-Hispanic. Average admission age was 
17.31 days.  Average length of stay (LOS) in the post
acute care hospital was 35 days.  All infants began 
treatment before admission to the post-acute care hospital 
and 92% weaned from all medications before discharge. 
Group differences were found for admission age (p=0.04), 
discharge age (p=0.005), LOS (p=0.033), days to wean 
morphine (p=0.004) and referring acute care hospital 
(p=0.01). 
Conclusion: A greater number of infants in post-acute 
care required phenobarbital as well as morphine than 
morphine alone. These infants were older at admission, took longer to wean and stayed in the hospital longer, 
indicating a more difficult course.