Lifelong Health: Alcohol, Other Addictions Increasing in Older Adults
Recently, a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reported that 9 percent of community-dwelling Medicare recipients consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, which has the potential to adversely affect their health. By all accounts, the number of older adults battling substance abuse will rise dramatically in the next 20 years. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicates that the number of older people requiring help for addiction will increase from 1.1 million today to 4.4 million in 2020, which would totally overwhelm current resources available to deal with addictions. Alcohol is not the only source of substance abuse in older people. A recent article in The New York Times quoted evidence indicating that 11 percent of those over the age of 55 are addicted to opiates, 5 percent to cocaine and 8 percent to other drugs. Even at age 75, 9 percent are addicted to opiates, 4 percent to cocaine and 11 percent to other drugs.
More about this important issue tomorrow.....
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1 comments:
Addiction is the major problem in teenagers in todays life. Some thing will help teenagers from this site.
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bird.lavonne
Suffering from an addiction. This website has a lot of great resources and treatment centers.
http://www.treatmentcenters.org
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