CNN /Health.com (3/6, Gardner) reports, “Adopted children are twice as likely to abuse drugs if their biological parents did too, suggesting that genetics do indeed play a role in the development of substance abuse problems,” according to a study published online March 5 in the Archives of General Psychiatry. “However, trouble or substance abuse in the adoptive family is also a risk factor, according to a study of more than 18,000 adopted children in Sweden,” suggesting that “both environment and biological family history can influence a child’s likelihood of future drug use.”
Specifically, “adopted children whose biological parents abused drugs were twice as likely to do the same, but so were their adopted siblings with whom they shared no heredity,” MedPage Today (3/6, Fiore) reports. The study of “18,115 adopted children who were born from 1950 to 1993, along with 78,079 biological parents and siblings, and 51,208 adoptive parents and siblings,” found that “drug abuse is etiologically complex with important genetic and shared-environmental influences,” the study authors reported.
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— “Adopted kids’ drug abuse risk affected by biological family,”Amanda Gardner , CNN, March 5, 2012.