Drug Abuse Risk Rises in Some Adoptive Children

Adverse environments can be more pathogenic to individuals with high levels of genetic risk for drug abuse. Using nine Swedish databases (1961 to 2009) of adopted children and their biological and adoptive relatives, researchers found that the risk for drug abuse was significantly elevated in the adopted offspring of biological parents with drug abuse, in biological full and half siblings of adopted children with drug abuse, and in adoptive siblings of adopted children with drug abuse. A genetic risk index and an environmental risk index both strongly predicted the risk of drug abuse in adopted children. The study was reported online March 5 in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The majority (85 percent) of adolescents experiment with substances prior to graduating from high school, and more than 10 percent of youth are in need of a clinical intervention for their substance use. Read more in the Clinical Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment, available from American Psychiatric Publishing.

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