The Effect of Aromatherapy on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and Salivary Cortisol Levels

The United States, Appalachia, Eastern Kentucky in particular, is in the midst of a major opioid abuse epidemic. This current epidemic is driven by misuse of prescription painkillers, i.e. Subutex and Saboxone. As prescription pills become more expensive and harder to acquire, addicts are seeking similar, cheaper drugs; such as heroin. From 1998 to 2011, the prevalence of opioid abuse and dependence amongst pregnant women has increased by 127%, from 1.7 per 1000 to 3.9 per 1000. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) or neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome is a condition produces gastrointestinal and autonomic neurologic dysfunction. Infants with severe withdrawal experience dysregulation of autonomic functions, resulting in feeding difficulty, diarrhea, excessive sleepiness, and tremors.Nearly two thirds of all babies exposed to opioids during gestation will require admission to a neonatal intensive care unit for management of withdrawal symptoms. During a typical year the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Kentucky Children's Hospital admits approximately 100-120 infants exhibiting NAS symptoms; these infants have a typical length of stay of 24 days if they require pharmacologic treatment.

The mainstay of treatment for NAS involves opioid replacement therapy with morphine to minimize withdrawal symptoms. Once symptoms are well controlled, the infant is said to have been "captured." At this point a slow weaning of his morphine dose occurs. The infants' clinical status is assessed with the Finnegan Scoring system, which examines symptoms such as crying, excessive sleepiness or difficulty sleeping, insomnia, or tremors along with objective findings such as temperature and respiratory rate.

In addition to pharmacotherapy, alternative and complementary medicine techniques are slowly entering the NAS treatment algorithm. Treatments such as music therapy infant massage, kangaroo care, aromatherapy, and acupressure are now employed in NICUs in addition to traditional opioids replacement. However, few studies exist in the literature to evaluate their effectiveness.

Aromatherapy is the practice of using natural essential oils to achieve a desired effect in an individual. Scents such as lavender and chamomile have been documented to have a soothing calming effect. Studies involving infants shown that lavender not only reduce crying and enhance sleep, but also reduce levels of salivary cortisol, a stress hormone. Additionally, aromatherapy is currently used as an adjunctive therapy at the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center.

Salivary cortisol is a non-invasive biomarker that has proven useful for monitoring stress in neonates. It is a simple and painless method for monitoring the stress hormone cortisol. Salivary cortisol has been used successfully in infants as a method to assess infant stress associated with prone position versus supine positioning.These studies have shown that salivary cortisol levels vary with stressful or soothing stimuli.