An estimated 19 million children live with an adult who uses alcohol problematically, has a mental illness, in addition to a substance use disorder.
According to a recent study, this type of living condition for children increases the risk that those children will go on to do the same.
Children Live With Disorder
Researchers estimate that 19 million children — 1 in 4 of Americans under age 18 — live with a parent or other adult who meets the definition for a substance use disorder.
Of them, an estimated 6 million children live with an adult who has a mental illness…in addition to their substance use disorder.
The most common substance that a parent showed problematic use of was alcohol. The survey data estimates that 12 million parents meet criteria for some level of alcohol use disorder.
In addition, more than 6 million parents may meet the condition for cannabis use disorder. And, nearly 3.4 million meet criteria for disordered use of multiple substances.
Sean Esteban McCabe, Ph.D., professor in the University of Michigan School of Nursing and Institute For Social Research, a member of the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and lead author of the new study explains,
“The increase and fact that one in four children now live with parental substance use disorder brings more urgency to the need to help connect parents to effective treatments, expand early intervention resources for children, and reduce the risk that children will go on to develop substance use issues of their own,”
More Research Findings to Note
The new findings are published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics by a team from the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking, and Health, which McCabe directs.
Both studies used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a federal program that has tracked U.S. drug and alcohol use since the 1970s, using data that researchers and policymakers have previously used.
In addition to alcohol and cannabis, McCabe and his colleagues estimate that more than two million children live with a parent who has a substance use disorder related to prescription drugs. Moreover, a little more than half a million children live with a parent whose use of illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.
Researcher Vita McCabe, M.D., MHSA, a board-certified in addiction medicine and psychiatry, as well as the director of University of Michigan Addiction Treatment Services in the Department of Psychiatry at Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan’s academic medical center noted,
“We know that children raised in homes where adults have substance use issues are more likely to have adverse childhood experiences, to use alcohol and drugs earlier and more frequently, and to be diagnosed with mental health conditions of their own. That’s why it’s so important for parents to know that there is effective treatment available, including the medications naltrexone and/or acamprosate for alcohol use disorder, cognitive behavioral therapy for cannabis use disorder, and buprenorphine or methadone for opioid use disorder including both prescription and non-prescription opioids.”
Ty Schepis, Ph.D., an addiction psychologist at Texas State University said.
“Our new findings add to the understanding of how many children are living with a parent who have severe and comorbid substance use disorder and other mental illness such as major depression. This is important to note because of the additional risk that this creates for children as they grow into adults.”
As noted, the type of adverse living condition for children where adults abuse their use of alcohol, illicit drugs, and/or prescription medication, increases the risk that those children will go on to do the same.
