Childhood risk factors for substance abuse in a clinical sample of adult outpatients in Riga Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine Centre symptoms checklist.

Abstract

Background. Studies conducted in clinical populations suggest a strong connection between different childhood risk factors and substance use disorder (SUD) in adulthood. Aim. To examine the associations between self-reported weak academic performance, repetition of a grade, single-parent family, self–reported quality of parent–child relationship, conduct problems in childhood and SUD in adulthood in a sample of outpatients in the Addiction Outpatient Clinic in Riga, Latvia. Methods. Adult outpatients of addiction clinic were asked to complete a self-report survey. Healthy control subjects (adults without addiction, formally assessed for fitness to drive, firearms licensing etc.) and patients with substance use disorder were examined in relation to self-reported childhood risk factors. Results. Self-report surveys were completed by 334 outpatients (mean age 37.4; SD=10.1), including 97 healthy control subjects. 76.3 % of participants were male. The acquired data show significant connections between poor academic performance (p<0.000), repetition of a grade (p=0.001), conduct problems in childhood (p<0.000) and SUD in adulthood. Associations between single-parent family, low quality of parent–child relationship and substance abuse were insignificant. Males were found to be 1.5-fold more likely to have substance use disorder comparing to females (p=0.000). Conclusion. According to the obtained data, poor academic performance, repetition of a grade and conduct problems in childhood might be risk factors for developing SUD in adulthood. Children with these risk factors should be the target population for primary prevention of substance abuse. Acknowledgements. The authors declare the absence of conflict of interest.