Genes and Highs: Can Parents With Substance Use Hamper Kid’s Intelligence?

Offspring of a parent with a substance use disorder, whether related to alcohol or drugs, face a heightened risk of intellectual disability. This risk persists even if the issue solely stems from the father, as outlined by researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Their findings, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, emphasize the importance of implementing preventative measures that target both parents (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Intellectual disability more common in families with substance use disorder

Go to source). While it has been widely recognized that a mother's alcohol consumption during pregnancy can elevate the likelihood of her child developing intellectual disabilities, this study from the Karolinska Institutet highlights that any form of substance abuse, irrespective of timing (including pre-pregnancy), in either parent, can serve as a significant risk factor.

“Preventative measures, such as educating healthcare professionals and public health recommendations, have focused for decades on mothers with alcohol-related problems,” says Lotfi Khemiri, a researcher at the Departments of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. “Our findings highlight the importance of also directing such measures towards fathers with different types of substance use disorders.”

The study, based on data from Swedish registries, comprised almost two million babies born between 1978 and 2002 and their parents. The researchers found that 1.2 percent of babies born to parents without such a disorder were diagnosed with an intellectual disability, compared with 3 percent of the babies who had one parent with a diagnosis related to a substance use disorder (alcohol or drug abuse).

The Link Between Parents with Substance Use Disorder and their Children’s Intellect

The elevated risk was greater if the parent had received a diagnosis before or during pregnancy rather than after birth. A substance use disorder diagnosis registered before birth was associated with more than twice the risk of intellectual disability in the baby, regardless of which parent had the diagnosis. The correlation was weaker but still statistically significant after adjusting for socioeconomic factors and psychiatric comorbidity in the parents.

“Since it was an observational study, we can draw no conclusions about the underlying mechanism, but we suspect that both genetic and environmental factors, including harmful effects of substance abuse on fetal development, may play a part,” says Dr. Khemiri. “We hope that the results will contribute to the preventative efforts, as well as to the improved diagnosis of children with intellectual disabilities and to timely intervention directed both to the child and parents in need of substance use disorder treatment.”

Intellectual disability was observed to be much more likely in alcohol-related problems during pregnancy, where the risk was five and three times higher depending on whether it was the mother or father who had the alcohol use disorder diagnosis.

Reference:

1. Intellectual disability more common in families with substance use disorder - (https://news.ki.se/intellectual-disability-more-common-in-families-with-substance-use-disorder)

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Source-Eurekalert