MMore than 321,000 children in the U.S. lost a parent to a drug overdose between 2011 and 2021, an alarming number that speaks to the country’s obligation to “comprehensively address the needs of individuals, families, and communities” as it faces growing overdose crisis, experts say.
A new study published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry found that the rate of children who lost a parent to an overdose more than doubled over that decade-long period, jumping from 27 to 63 children per 100,000. In total, the study estimates that 321,566 children in the US lost a parent to a drug overdose during this period. And although attrition rates rose consistently each year across all demographics examined in the study, people of color were disproportionately affected by this trend.
The highest number of deaths occurred among white parents, but children of American Indian or Alaska Native parents experienced the highest rates of loss, the study found. Children with young black parents between the ages of 18 and 25 experienced the greatest increase in loss rate each year.
The study was led by researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Nearly 650,000 people ages 18 to 64 died from drug overdoses between 2011 and 2021, but this was the first national study to estimate the number of children who lost a parent during that period, according to a press release about the study. of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Researchers used data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health and the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System to conduct the study.
“It is devastating to see that nearly half of the people who died from drug overdoses had a child,” said Nora Volkow, director of NIDA, in the press release. “No family should lose a loved one to an overdose, and each of these deaths represents a tragic loss that could have been prevented.”
Researchers said the study highlighted the need for holistic health care to treat people struggling with substance abuse and the importance of providing prevention resources to help families break generational cycles of substance abuse.
“These data illustrate that not only are communities of color facing disparities in overdose deaths, but they also underscore the need for responses to the overdose crisis to move forward to comprehensively meet the needs of individuals, families, and communities,” Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, SAMHSA leader said in the NIH press release.
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