ArticleIntensive care medicine. Paediatric and neonatal2026
Opioid exposure on the preterm brain: qualitative and quantitative MRI analysis.
Article in Intensive care medicine. Paediatric and neonatal, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Analgosedation in Neonatal Intensive Care: Current Strategies, Challenges, and Future Perspectives.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Aim: To explore whether opioid exposure (morphine or fentanyl) in the neonatal intensive care unit is associated with altered neurodevelopmental outcome in preterm infants, and whether this association is modified by qualitative (brain lesions) or quantitative (volumetric) brain MRI measures obtained around 30 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA). Method: This retrospective cohort study included 280 infants born ≤ 30 weeks of gestation (2008-2016), scanned at 1.5T before 33 weeks PMA. Brain injury was scored by paediatric (neuro)radiologists; brain volumes were obtained via automated segmentation (dHCP-pipeline). Neurodevelopmental outcome was assessed at age 2 (Bayley-III) and age 5 (WPPSI-III, M-ABC-2). Associations between opioid exposure, brain measures, and outcome were examined using multivariable regression and interaction models. Results: Opioid exposure was associated with lower cognitive scores at age 2, but not with IQ at age 5. Motor scores at age 5 were lower in children exposed to opioids. Opioid administration was associated with increased risk of intraventricular haemorrhage and post haemorrhagic ventricular dilatation, but not with brain volumes. No significant interaction between opioid administration and brain injury or volume on outcome was demonstrated. Interpretation: Opioid exposure in preterm neonates is associated with poorer neurodevelopmental outcome in early childhood, but not with early brain injury or structural volumetrics on MRI after birth. Long-term follow up and longitudinal brain imaging may provide greater insight in the association between opioid administration and poor neurodevelopmental outcome. Thus far, quantitative or qualitative brain metrics around 30 weeks PMA have not been proven useful. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44253-025-00105-1.
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Registered trials
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