Impact of neonatal pain and opiate administration in animal models: A meta-analysis concerning pain threshold.

Background And Aim: Neonatal intensive care treatment, including frequently performed painful procedures and administration of analgesic drugs, can have different effects on the neurodevelopment. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the influence of pain, opiate administration, and pre-emptive opiate administration on pain threshold in animal studies in rodents, which had a brain development corresponding to preterm and term infants.

Methods: A systematic literature search of electronic data bases including CENTRAL (OVID), CINAHL (EBSCO), Embase.