Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2025
A Preterm Rat Model for Pain Studies
Published on: February 9, 2024
Effect of combined procedural pain interventions during neonatal intensive care on sleep, cognitive development, and
Haixia Gao1, Mei Li2, Honglian Gao3
1School of Nursing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
Insights
Combined procedural pain interventions improved preterm infants' sleep and development. These interventions may positively impact motor skills and behavior, potentially moderated by sleep duration and awakenings.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal care
- Developmental psychology
- Pain management
Background:
- Repeated procedural pain in preterm infants impacts sleep, cognitive, and behavioral development.
- Poor sleep is linked to impaired cognitive development and increased internalizing behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the long-term effects of combined procedural pain interventions on preterm infants' sleep, cognitive development, and internalizing behaviors.
- To determine if sleep quality moderates these intervention effects.
Main Methods:
- Follow-up of participants from a randomized controlled trial (RCT).
- Assessment of sleep (total sleep time, night awakenings) at 3, 6, and 12 months.
- Evaluation of cognitive development and internalizing behaviors at 12 and 24 months using standardized scales.
Main Results:
- Combined pain interventions showed benefits for later sleep, motor, and language development.
- Interventions also positively affected internalizing behaviors.
- Sleep duration and night awakenings appeared to moderate the effects on motor development and internalizing behaviors.
Conclusions:
- Combined procedural pain interventions during neonatal intensive care offer potential long-term benefits for preterm infants.
- Sleep quality plays a moderating role in the developmental outcomes following these interventions.
Abstract:
Repeated procedural pain can cause preterm infants to spend excessive time awake at the cost of sleep and can have a detrimental impact on later cognitive and behavioral development. What's more, poor sleep may be correlated with worse cognitive development and more internalizing behaviors in infants and toddlers. In a randomized controlled trial (RCT), we found that combined procedural pain interventions (sucrose, massage, music, nonnutritive sucking, and gentle human touch) during neonatal intensive care could improve preterm infants' early neurobehavioral development. Here, we followed up the participants who were enrolled in the RCT to evaluate the effect of combined pain interventions on later sleep, cognitive development, and internalizing behavior and to determine whether sleep may moderate the effect of combined pain interventions on the cognitive development and internalizing behavior. Total sleep time and night awakenings at 3, 6, and 12 months old; the cognitive development (adaptability, gross motor, fine motor, language, and personal-social domains) at 12 and 24 months old measured by the Chinese version of Gesell Development Scale; and the internalizing behavior at 24 months old measured by the Chinese version of Child Behavior Checklist were assessed. Our findings showed the potential benefits of combined pain interventions during neonatal intensive care for preterm infant's later sleep, motor and language development, and internalizing behavior, and the effect of combined pain interventions on motor development and internalizing behavior might be moderated by the mean total sleep duration and night awakenings at 3, 6, and 12 months old.
