Psychosocial, Pharmacological, and Legal Interventions for Improving the Psychosocial Outcomes of Children with Substance Misusing Parents
Department of Health and Social Care
Saint Louis University
Global estimates indicate approximately 5-10 per cent of children are raised in families where parents misuse alcohol or other drugs. Extensive research documents the adverse health, developmental and psychosocial outcomes for children raised in these families. Parental substance misuse also typically co-occurs with multiple family risk factors, including parental psychopathology and domestic violence.  The prevalence and complexities associated with parental substance misuse has led to the development of a range of approaches that aim to improve child health and developmental outcomes. Estimates suggest that for every dollar invested into substance misuse treatment, there are significant cost savings. While there is a number of reviews on different interventions (~ 25), a critical limitation of the current evaluation and review literature is the lack of an updated integration and synthesis of the comparative effectiveness of intervention models. Without a clear understanding of the comparative effectiveness, practitioners and policy-makers face difficulties in making informed and reliable choices between interventions. This review will provide a comprehensive up-to-date review of psychosocial, pharmacological and legal interventions in the context of parental substance misuse and their impact on child psychosocial outcomes. The review will use network meta-analysis to synthesise the comparative effectiveness of different intervention approaches.
6.1 Pharmaceuticals / ESP