The association between parental history and delay discounting among individuals in recovery from addiction.

BACKGROUND: Family history of addiction is a risk factor for substance use disorders. Delay discounting (DD) is associated with the risk of substance use and dependence, and is predictive of the likelihood of successful abstinence and treatment outcomes; thus, we investigated the extent to which having parents with addiction (parental history of addiction) and number of addicted parents affect DD among individuals in recovery from addiction.

METHODS: Data from 177 individuals in recovery from addiction from The International Quit and Recovery Registry (IQRR), an ongoing online data collection program that aims to understand addiction and how people succeed in recovery, were included in the analysis. Participants with no, one, or two parents with addiction were compared on measures of DD using an adjusting-amount task.

RESULTS: Parental history of addiction was significantly associated with delay discounting. After controlling for age and gender, which were significantly different between groups, participants reporting two biological parents with addiction had significantly higher DD rates compared to those reporting one or no parents with addiction.

CONCLUSIONS: Participants with two parents with addiction had significantly higher rates of discounting compared to those with no or only one parent with addiction. This information can serve as a foundation to better identify and target important subgroups that need additional or non-traditional intervention strategies to address their larger degree of impulsivity and help maintain abstinence or achieve better treatment outcomes.