A National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trial published in JAMA shows that treating newborns with opioid withdrawal using as-needed medication dosing based on withdrawal symptoms—rather than fixed scheduled doses—helps babies go home about two days earlier and reduces overall drug exposure. The symptom-based approach, tested on 189 infants compared to 194 on scheduled dosing, worked best when combined with family-centered care practices like the Eat, Sleep, Console method, and several hospitals involved in the study have already adopted it. The research is part of NIH's broader HEAL Initiative to address opioid-related harms, and the findings could influence how neonatal opioid withdrawal is treated nationwide.