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 The study in JAMA Psychiatry published by the American Medical
Association found children whose parents were prescribed opioids
were twice as likely to attempt suicide as the offspring of people
who did not use those drugs.
The latest study from researchers at the University of Chicago and
the University of Pittsburgh is the first research attempting to tie
rising suicides among U.S. children to the opioid crisis.
"I think that it's obvious in many ways; it's just that we were able
to put it together and prove it," said Dr. David Brent, one of the
authors of the study.
Brent, of the University of Pittsburgh, said he believes some opioid
users might display less care, monitoring and affection for their
children, which would explain the higher suicide rate in those kids.
Suicide increased across all ages in the United States between 1999
and 2016, spiking by over 30% in half the country, the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year.
Another study found that among girls age 10 to 14 the suicide rate
rose by 12.7% per year after 2007.
In the latest study, researchers used medical insurance data from
2010 to 2016 for more than 300,000 children ages 10 to 19, and broke
that group down into those whose parents were prescribed opioid
drugs and those whose parents were not.
Among the children of parents who used opioids, 0.37% attempted
suicide, compared to 0.14 % of the children of non-users, according
to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
The parents were all legally prescribed opioids that they used for
at least a year. The study did not identify which of those users may
have been abusing painkillers, as opposed to using them in line with
doctor recommendations.
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CHALLENGES FOR CHILDREN OF DRUG USERS
Children of opioid users still had a significantly higher risk of
attempting suicide after researchers adjusted for factors such as
depression and parental history of suicide.
Some researchers have suggested social media could harm children's
self-esteem and increase their suicide risk.
But Brent and his co-authors noted social media is prevalent in
countries that have not seen a rise in child suicide.
U.S. President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public
health emergency in October 2017 and has promised to hold drugmakers
accountable for their part in the crisis.
Nearly 400,000 people died of overdoses between 1999 and 2017 in the
United States, resulting in the lowering of overall life expectancy
for the first in more than 60 years, according to data from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Eric Rice, an associate professor at the University of Southern
California's school of social work, said other research has found
children of drug users face challenges.
"A doubling in the suicide rate is a pretty shocking manifestation
of that, I've got to be honest," Rice said. "But to hear that there
are impacts on children which are negative is not a surprising
thing," said Rice, who was not involved with the study.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
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