A large study of Americans aged 18 and older pointed to the role of adverse childhood experiences in the development of opioid use disorder. Researchers surveyed more than 36,000 individuals who were representative of the US population, asking about their experiences with 10 different forms of early adversity, such as childhood physical abuse, and their prescription opioid use as adolescents and adults. They found that early adverse experiences significantly increased the odds for misusing prescription opioids at or before age 17 and the odds for ever being diagnosed with opioid use disorder. And opioid risk rose as the number of adversities rose. Notably, most of these adversities were avoidable.

For more information, see Vol. 18, No. 3 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.