ELDERLY DRUG ABUSE WILL RISE AS BOOMERS AGE

NEW YORK, Sep 09 (Reuters Health) -- As growing numbers of baby boomers
enter their senior years, alcohol and drug problems -- especially abuse of
prescription and over-the-counter drugs -- among the elderly will rise,
California researchers predict.

Between 1946 through 1964, there were approximately 76.5 million babies
born. And record numbers of these baby boomers will turn 65 in 2011, making
the baby boom generation the largest group of senior citizens America has
ever seen.

The "baby boomer" generation has historically used more drugs than other
generations because many of them came of age in the 1960s when drug use was
more prevalent. But "we may also see greater numbers of individuals who
develop late-onset drug or alcohol problems," write Thomas L. Patterson of
the University of California at San Diego and Dr. Dilip V. Jeste of the
Veteran Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. Their report is published in
the September issue of Psychiatric Services, a journal of the American
Psychiatric Society.

For example, people with arthritis may grow increasingly dependent on pain
medications, while those with sleep problems may be more likely to abuse
sleeping pills such as benzodiazepines, they write.

Stress, isolation, various losses, loneliness and illness also increase risk
of substance abuse among senior citizens, they write. And studies have shown
that elderly people use prescription drugs three times more frequently than
people in the general population. The use of over-the-counter medications
among this population is even more extensive, the investigators point out.

"This suggests that in sheer numbers, we can expect to see more people over
age 65 with abuse problems in the coming decades, with the resulting impact
on treatment programs and other resources, which are not geared to address
the special needs of this age group," Patterson explains in a statement.

But, the researchers add, "there is still time to develop a treatment
infrastructure that is sensitive to the problems of older drug users."

They suggest that in addition to greater research on the substance abuse
patterns of older Americans, larger print on prescription drug labels may
discourage misuse of medication.

"While there is a plethora of studies estimating the incidence and
prevalence of drug abuse in the younger populations, there have been far
fewer studies which focus on the elderly," Patterson and Jeste note.