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Though this story doesn't mention ACEs, it does beg the question of whether or not trauma or chronic stress has played a role in the shifting demographics of heroin use. Do you have thoughts on this? Share them in the comments below.
Heroin was once the scourge of the urban poor, but today the typical user is a young, white suburbanite, a study finds. And the path to addiction usually starts with prescription painkillers.
A survey of 9,000 patients at treatment centers around the country found that 90 percent of heroin users were white men and women. Most were relatively young — their average age was 23. And three-quarters said that they first started not with heroin but with abusing prescription opioids like OxyContin.
The results of the study, which were published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, square with earlier findings that heroin abuse is both growing and spreading beyond urban centers.
Study available at JAMA Psychiatry: The Changing Face of Heroin Use in the United States
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