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.They managed to bury the actual results there, huh? Still, the article notes that this is "good news" for adoptive parents, since it suggests that tainted genes can be "cured" by a good environment. Sheesh.
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.
This suggests that both environment and biological family history can influence a child's likelihood of future drug use.
There's more detail about the study at the MedicalNews website, but there are really two versions -- one headlined Dysfunctional family environment increases genetic risk for drug abuse and one headlined Study evaluates link between genetic and environmental factors and risk of drug abuse.
Looks like CNN used the second version, which blames biology in the first paragraph:
In a national Swedish adoption study, the risk for drug abuse appears to be increased among adopted children whose biological parents had a history of drug abuse, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.rather than the first version, headlining dysfunctional families, which blames environment:
The risk of abusing drugs is greater - even for adopted children - if the family environment in which they are raised is dysfunctional, according to a new study conducted by a collaborative team from Virginia Commonwealth University and Lund University in Sweden.So, take your pick -- blame the birth parents or blame the adoptive parents! Or recognize that biology and environment are both influential. . . .