A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics reveals that nearly 19 million children in the U.S. live with at least one parent struggling with substance use disorder. This figure, equating to 1 in 4 children, underscores the severity of the issue, with a significant proportion facing moderate to severe addiction. Dr. Scott Hadland emphasizes the implications this data holds for healthcare providers, stressing the need for readiness to support affected families. The study utilized 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health data, surpassing earlier estimates by accounting for updated diagnostic criteria.
I'm an addiction doc, and so I think about this issue all the time, says Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, who wasn't involved in the new study. Even still, I was surprised at how high that percentage was. It's just an enormous number of kids that are affected.
If one-quarter of kids in the U.S. have a parent with a substance use disorder, that tells us that every day in our clinics we are encountering many, if not dozens of families that are affected by substance use disorders.
The new study used data from the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a federal survey that estimated the prevalence of substance use and mental health disorders based on the most updated criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-V (DSM-5).
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