Demographic and Therapeutic Determinants of Pain Reactivity in Very Low Birth Weight Neonates at 32 Weeks' Postconceptional Age

Abstract

Early pain exposure at very low GA may alter the autonomic substrate, resulting in infants who are in a perpetual state of stress. The results of this study suggest that the judicious use of analgesia may ameliorate these effects on later pain reactivity. However, although early morphine exposure may "normalize" subsequent pain reaction, this study did not examine its effects on neurodevelopment.