Prescription Drug Abuse Among Older Adults: Warning Signs and Treatment Options

By Jill Gonzalez

Drug abuse is most commonly linked to young adults and teenagers - not their parents or grandparents. But approximately 18 percent of adults aged 60 and older have a prescription drug abuse problem, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

A distinction should be made between drug abuse and drug addiction, as the two are not necessarily the same. Drug addiction is indicative of a situation where a person takes their prescribed medication as directed, but because of its addictive qualities, the person becomes physically and/or emotionally dependent on the drug.

Drug abuse, on the other hand, occurs when patients start adjusting their dosages or the frequency with which they use a particular medication without physician approval. Just because a person abuses prescription drugs, it does not necessarily mean that he or she is addicted. However, drug abuse can certainly lead to addiction if the problem is not caught and corrected early on.

Why Prescription Drug Abuse Is on the Rise

The majority of medications that are prescribed to older adults are mood-changing drugs that have a great potential for being misused or abused, or that people can easily become dependent on. Older adults may be prescribed medication for chronic pain, depression, anxiety or other disorders that can be highly addicting.

As a general rule, the elderly take more prescription medications than younger adults, but often times the elderly are far more reluctant to ask questions about their prescriptions. They also tend to disregard dispensing recommendations, choosing instead to self-medicate on a schedule of their own.

In addition, there are some other factors that contribute to the development of drug abuse in older adults:

Retirement
Loneliness
Confusion
Aging
Anxiety
Chronic pain
Depression
Loss of a spouse or friend
Not feeling a sense of purpose in life

Prescription Drug Abuse Treatment Options

Treating older adults is sometimes hard because it can be difficult to diagnose them as having a prescription drug problem in the first place. The elderly usually do not want to admit to having a problem abusing drugs, so they do not tell anyone about their problem. Some doctors have suggested that testing for drug and alcohol abuse needs to be a part of routine annual physical exams for the elderly since they are so prone to substance abuse addiction.

While this process has not yet caught on with most doctors, the idea is still one that gets talked about at length. Most professionals are in agreement that there needs to be some type of intervention plan in place for identifying and diagnosing elderly patients who are abusing drugs or alcohol so that help can be obtained for them.

Older adults have more success with treatment when they enroll at a substance abuse treatment facility that combines detox with rehabilitation methods. It is usually recommended that older adults go through detoxification slowly, as doing so facilitates a much safer withdrawal and recovery process.

At Sierra Tucson, one of the nation's leading residential substance abuse treatment programs, older adults can benefit from a treatment philosophy that emphasizes individual attention, personalized care and a comprehensive integration of time-tested medical and psychiatric techniques along with emerging alternative therapies.

Aftercare is an extremely important component of treatment for older adults, so it is important that they enter a prescription drug treatment program that provides adequate resources for helping them readjust to their lives once the initial treatment phase is complete. Even though most older adults are retired and do not carry the responsibilities of working a full-time job anymore, they still need help in readjusting to their old routines following treatment.

In fact, some professionals argue that older adults might even need more help readjusting to a "normal" life simply because of the tremendous amount of upheaval that drives so many of them to abuse prescription drugs in the first place. It is important to keep in mind that once people pass the age of 60, they start experiencing a variety of losses in their lives on a regular basis. Friends, loved ones and relatives may all seem to suddenly vanish from a person's life in a relatively short period of time, leaving the elderly feeling alone and lost in a world where they suddenly have no one to talk to or depend on.

When choosing a substance abuse treatment program for an elderly adult in your life, remember to ask questions about the types of treatments that are offered, making sure you choose a facility that will provide a full range of counseling and therapy sessions to help with life's transitions. If older adults do not receive sufficient aftercare once their recovery from drug abuse is complete, they will be far more likely to suffer a relapse, sending them right back into the vicious cycle of abusing their medications.

Treatment Center

Prescription Drug Abuse Among Older Adults: Warning Signs and Treatment Options