Treatment of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome With Clonidine Versus Morphine as Primary Therapy

Clonidine at 0.38 mcg/kg/dose every 3 hours or 0.5 mcg/kg/dose every 4 hours Clonidine dose will be increased by 25% of the previous dose if needed. It will be decreased by 10% of the highest dose using the original/birth weight (same amount each time) every 24 to 48 hours, provided the scores remain below 8.

Morphine at 0.03 mg/kg/dose every 3 hours or 0.04 mg/kg/dose every 4 hours Morphine dose will be increased by 25% of the previous dose if needed. It will be decreased by 10% of the highest dose using the original/birth weight (same amount each time) every 24 to 48 hours, provided the scores remain below 8.