Parental Opioid Rx More Than Doubles Risk for Persistent Use in Offspring

THURSDAY, Oct. 30, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Adolescents whose parents had two or more opioid prescriptions have a more than doubled risk for persistent opioid use, according to a study published online Oct. 23 in PLOS Medicine.

Anna Marcuzzi, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and colleagues examined the association between parental opioid prescriptions and risk for opioid use in young people. The analysis included 21,470 adolescents and young adults (aged 13 to 29 years) participating in the third (2006 to 2008) or fourth (2017 to 2019) survey of the population-based Young-HUNT or HUNT Study.

The researchers found that if a mother or father had two or more opioid prescriptions, the risk for persistent opioid prescriptions in offspring was doubled (hazard ratios [HRs], 2.60 and 2.37, respectively) compared with offspring whose parents did not receive any opioid prescriptions. These associations were not influenced by parental chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain status. For offspring of mothers with two or more versus no opioid prescriptions, the risk for any opioid prescription in offspring was similar regardless of MSK pain status (HR, 1.30 if the mother reported chronic MSK pain and 1.31 if she did not). Similarly, for fathers, HRs were 1.19 and 1.21, respectively. 

“These findings suggest that family-based strategies, targeting both parents and their offspring, should be considered when managing pain and reducing potentially unnecessary opioid use in young people,” the authors write.

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