More than 320,000 children in the United States lost a parent due to a drug overdose in the years between 2011 and 2021, according to a new study released in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday.

The study was conducted by members of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It found that between the years 2011 and 2021, 649,599 people aged 18 to 64 died due to a drug overdose, leaving behind an estimated 321,566 children.

“It is devastating to see that almost half of the people who died of a drug overdose had a child. No family should lose their loved one to an overdose, and each of these deaths represents a tragic loss that could have been prevented,” said NIDA Director Nora Volkow in a press release. 

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