The study underlines the growing burden on parental substance consumption in American children

A large percentage of American children grows up in households with at least one parent who uses alcohol or other drugs in a problematic manner to take the risk that these children will do the same, according to a new study.

Using data from 2023, which are as up-to-date as possible, the researchers appreciate that 19 million children's 1 in 4 of Americans under the age of 18 meet with a parent or another adult who has encountered the definition of a disorder of the use of substance.

An estimated 6 million children live with an adult who has a mental illness in addition to their disorder of substance consumption.

The most common substance that parents showed was alcohol, although surcharge data led to estimates that 12 million parents meet the criteria for a certain amount of alcohol consumption disorder. A little more than 6 million parents can meet criteria for a disorder of cannabis consumption. Around 3.4 million meet the criteria for a disordered use of several substances.

The number that lives with a parent who had a disorder of the substance consumption in 2023 is higher than the 17 million that were estimated in a paper published in months in which data was used from 2020.

The increase and fact that each of four children who now live with parental substance disorders will bring more urgency for the need to connect parents with effective treatments, to expand early intervention resources for children and to reduce the risk that children will develop their own substance problems. ”

Sean Esteban McCabe, the main author of the new study and senior author of the youngest.

The new findings are published in the journal Jama pediatrics From a team from the University of Michigan Center for studying drugs, alcohol, smoking and health, which McCabe heads. He is a professor at the um School of Nursing and Institute for Social Research and member of the UM Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

Both studies used data from the national survey on drug use and health, a federal program that has been pursuing the US medicinal products and alcohol consumption since the 1970s, and provided data that researchers and political decision -makers have used.

This survey will look uncertain in the future due to employees and budget cuts to the Federal Authority in which it is based, the administration of drug abuse and psychiatric services or the Samhsa. The entire employee of the survey received knowledge of discharge in April.

In addition to alcohol and cannabis, McCabe and his colleagues appreciate that a little more than 2 million children live with a parent who has a substance consumption disorder in connection with prescription medication and live a little more than half a million with a parent whose use of illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine criteria for a disorder of the substance consumption.

Researchers include Vita McCabe, director of the Michigan University of Michigan's addiction treatment services, around Michigan Medicine, around Academic Medical Center.

“We know that children who grew up in houses in which adults have problems with substance consumption have more disadvantageous childhood experiences, used to consume alcohol and drugs and are diagnosed with their own mental illnesses,” said Vita McCabe, a board in addiction medicine and psychiatry. “That is why it is so important for parents to know that effective treatment is available, including medication naltrexone and/or acamprosate for alcohol consumption disorders, cognitive behavioral therapy for cannabis treatments and buprenorphine or methadone for opioid consumption disorders, including the opioids, including the opioids available.”

Both the new paper and the diagnoses of substance disorders and important mental illnesses based in March in the journal of addiction medicine to the criteria that are contained in diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders 5 or DSM-5.

In the March study, the authors showed that the change in the disorder of the substance use in DSM-5 compared to their previous version led to a significant increase in the number of valued children with a parent with substance consumption.

Ty Schepis, an addiction psychologist at Texas State University, was the leading author of the earlier period and is a senior author of the new paper.

“Our new findings contribute to understanding how many children live together with a parent who has a severe and comorbid substance disorder and other mental illnesses such as major depression,” he said. “This is important to consider because the additional risk for children growing to adults arises.”

Research was financed by the National Institute for Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health (R01DA031160, R01DA043691).