and a recent study that evaluated the offspring of parents consumers
of heroin and alcohol, concluded that the children of heroin addicted
parents had 8 times more risk of suffering depressive disorder, 3 times
more risk of ADHD and 16 times more risk of Substance Use Disorders
(SUD) than controls [13].
The literature data suggest there are developmental problems in
children and adolescent born to heroin-addicted mothers, as well as
an increased risk of psychiatric problems and SUD, but there are few
data about what happens beyond adolescence. The aim of this study is
to analyze the long-term evolution of children born to heroin-addicted
mothers. We attempted to locate all the people born in the “Hospital
del Mar” in Barcelona (Spain) in the 1980s to heroin-addicted mothers
to assess their socioeconomic development, social problems, and
the presence of psychiatric disorders and SUD. Considering that the
reference population of our hospital covered an area directly affected
by the impact of heroin in that time, we expected to find a group with