Children who grow up with a parent addicted to drugs or alcohol are at increased risk of developing arthritis in adulthood, new research suggests.
An observational study of more than 13,000 adults showed that those with a history of parental addiction were roughly 30% more likely to have arthritis than their peers without such history after adjusting for relevant confounding factors.
"We believe that early adversities may change the way the child reacts to stress throughout their lives," Esme Fuller-Thomson, PhD, from the University of Toronto in Canada, toldMedscape Medical News.
"Children growing up with addicted parents are often in very difficult home environments. Chronic stress in childhood can create long-term dysfunctions in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] axis, which is a key part of the body's stress response system. In turn, abnormal HPA axis functioning has been associated with arthritic symptoms," she explained.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/822919
International Journal of Population Research -- The Association between a History of Parental Addictions and Arthritis in Adulthood: Findings from a Representative Community Survey
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