Older adults' abuse of prescription drugs increasing
Data from national surveys reveal a disturbing trend for 50- to 59-year-olds: the number of those reporting past-month abuse of illicit drugs — including the nonmedical use of prescription drugs — more than doubled from 2002 to 2010, going from 907,000 to 2,375,000, or from 2.7 to 5.8 percent in this population. Among those 65 and older, 414,000 used illicit drugs in 2010. A new topic, Prescription and Illicit Drug Abuse, available on NIHSeniorHealth.gov, describes this trend and the effects of medication and drug abuse on older adults.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health, the numbers of older substance abusers could continue to rise, due to the aging of the baby boomers, who were more likely than previous generations to have used illicit drugs in their youth.