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Older Persons Become Alcoholics

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Senior Citizen Invisible Epidemic

University of Illinois News Bureau

 

It's being called an "invisible epidemic" by some health care experts -- the growing number of senior citizens with out-of-control drinking problems.

 

According to "Inebriated Elders," a just-published article in the Elder Law Journal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as many as one in six Americans 60 and older are over dependent on alcohol. Twenty percent of the elderly who are admitted to psychiatric wards show symptoms of alcoholism or substance abuse. By some estimates, alcoholism today rivals heart attacks as a killer of senior citizens.

 

A growing type of abuser is the "late-onset alcoholic," according to author Susan Abrams, an Illinois law graduate who is the clerk for U.S. District Judge Harold A. Baker in Central Illinois. Such a person shows no sign of alcoholism until major physical or lifestyle changes, such as health problems, death of a spouse, financial worries, depression or sleeplessness, trigger over drinking after age 50. >>More

Preparing A Senior Alcoholic For A Treatment Program Is Tricky

 

It is considered to be a very tricky affair to prepare a senior patient for alcohol treatment. Seniors have several problems and issues connected with their addiction and they will never directly become willing for treatment. The rate of denial associated with their treatment is quite high. In addition, there are the following problems:

 

Seniors will not accept that they have any problem with their alcoholism. They will argue that they have been consuming alcohol since a very long time and that it suits them well. Due to this reason, they will not accept that they need any kind of treatment. >>More

Alcoholism And The Elderly

Seniors in Sobriety: Senior Alcoholics Reach Out to Others

 

The alcohol problems among older people are often mistaken for other conditions associated with the aging process.

 

In this population, alcohol abuse and alcoholism may go undiagnosed and untreated or be inappropriately treated.

 

All around us are many elders that alcohol has robbed of hope, dignity, and the ability to cope.

 

We hope to carry the message of recovery to seniors everywhere.>>More