Study finds ‘disturbing upward trends’ may have common roots
Researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh found that children of parents who use opioids have an increased risk of attempting suicide.
The suicide rate among young people in the United States has risen in the past 15 years. Over the same time period, opioid use and abuse in adults also has increased considerably. In a study published this week in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers found that opioid use by a parent is associated with a doubling of the risk of suicide attempts by their children.
“Until now, there has been little focus on the association between the increase in opioid use among adults and the risk of suicidal behavior by their children,” said the paper’s senior author Robert D. Gibbons, the Blum-Riese Professor of Biostatistics at UChicago, who is a leader in the field of suicide research. “We theorized such a link was plausible because parental substance abuse is a known risk factor for suicide attempts by their children. In addition, depression and suicide attempts by parents, which are known to be related to suicidal behavior in their offspring, are more common among adults who abuse opioids.”
Continue reading at: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/children-whose-parents-abuse-opioids-more-likely-attempt-suicide
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"Generation O", the children growing up in families with opioid addiction.
The main example used was Ohio. Ohio has the lowest state funding on social services and is the epicenter of the opioid epidemic. The children, their schools, their communities are all feeling the impact and dealing with the reprecussions of opiod addiction. There are some schools that have programs that provide soap, showers and clean clothing for kids to change into for the school day, at the end of the day they change back into their own clothes (which are apparently very worn and dirty) and go home...
article: "Become my mom again......"