But the study, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, further complicates the question of how to safely and effectively treat babies going through withdrawal, called neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). At the behest of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the researchers spent a year developing a methadone formulation that could be custom-prepared at each of the eight participating hospitals. This was done to avoid using commercial methadone solutions, which are not approved for pediatric use and contain alcohol as a preservative.