In Ontario, Canada, a significant rise in emergency department visits and hospitalizations among young mothers has been linked to substance use, according to a full study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The research revealed that mothers with dependent children experienced a nearly 5% annual increase in emergency department visits for substance use, outpacing the 2% rise among childless females. The far-reaching consequences of substance use extend beyond the individual, affecting entire families.
Substance Use Trends Among Mothers
A notable disparity in substance use was observed among mothers under 25, whose rates increased more than four times faster than those of other females. Similarly, hospital admissions for substance use followed a comparable pattern. This trend bucks the broader North American trajectory, where opioid, stimulant, cannabis, and hallucinogen use has increased across the general population over the past 20 years.
Dr. Colleen Webber, lead investigator of OnSPARK at the Bruyère Health Research Institute, highlights the adverse childhood experiences that can result from growing up with a parent struggling with substance use. “Despite this, there is surprisingly little evidence on substance use in parents, although many studies have been conducted on the general population.”
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Mothers and Substance Use Crises
To investigate the prevalence of rising substance use among parents, researchers analyzed ICES data from 2008 to 2024, focusing on females in Ontario who had given birth and had at least one child under 18. The study compared these birthing parents to childless females of similar ages, encompassing 988,106 birthing parents and 1,198,063 other females.
Dr. Daniel Myran, co-author and scientist at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, explains, “We wanted to understand some of the broader effects of rising substance use. In this study, we asked whether mothers have been spared these overlapping crises, and the answer appears to be no. Substance harms have risen in moms at least as much as in females who do not have children.”
Alcohol’s Role in Substance Use
Although amphetamines, cannabis, and opioids saw the highest relative increases, alcohol remains the primary driver of emergency visits and hospital admissions for substance use. In 2024, alcohol use accounted for 46% of emergency department visits and 41% of hospitalizations for substance use among mothers. Myran notes, “While ED visits and hospitalizations for substance use remain relatively rare in mothers, affecting around 0.5%, we should be concerned that for each mother seeking care in these settings, there are multiple others who did not seek care either because of stigma or because their substance use was not severe enough to need hospital care.”