1 in 4 Children Has a Parent with a Substance Use Disorder, Study Says
A new study found one in four U.S. children has a parent with a substance use disorder, a dramatic increase from years past
A large portion of parents' disorders are considered moderate to severe
The most commonly abused substance is alcoholA new study has revealed information about substance abuse within families.
According to a study published Monday, May 12, in JAMA Pediatrics, one in four children in the United States has at least one parent who has a substance use disorder.Researchers found that most parents with a substance use disorder abuse alcohol. Other substances in the study included cannabis, cocaine, prescription drugs, and more.
The study analyzed data from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the DSM-5, a guide to mental disorders used by mental health professionals. It found that 19 million children were living with a parent who had a SUD.
It's a substantial increase from earlier studies, like one conducted in 2022, which concluded that 7 million children lived in an addiction-impacted home. The substantial increase is partially due to new criteria, NPR reported; earlier studies used criteria from the now-outdated DSM-4.
One of the study's authors, Sean Esteban McCabe, also found that a large number of parents with substance use disorder have a moderate to severe condition.
"We also found that 7.6 million children live in a household with a parent that has either a moderate or severe substance use disorder," McCabe said, per NPR. "And 3.4 million live with a parent with multiple substance use disorders."
Additionally, McCabe's team found that more than 6 million children have a parent with substance use disorder alongside a mental health disorder.
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Dr. Scott Hadland, who specializes in adolescent medicine and wasn't involved in the study, stressed that alcohol plays a large role in substance use-related deaths, per NPR.
"It actually kills more people in the U.S. than do opioids every year, but it's a slower death rate," Hadland told the outlet. "It's a chronic disease process that affects, you know, somebody's liver, somebody's risk of developing cancer."
Researchers believe the study is important because children whose parents have a SUD are more likely to be at-risk for using substances earlier, substance abuse and mental health disorders.
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