Substance Use Disorders in Later Life: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature of an Emerging Public Health Concern

The “baby boomers” will age into the largest group of older persons heretofore in the history of the United States1. The addition of the baby boomers, who started to turn 65 in the year 2011, will swell the number of geriatric persons in the United States to approximately 72.1 million by 20302,3. Th is generation led the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s and pioneered dramatic increases in the use and abuse of illicit drugs4-6. Compared with previous geriatric cohorts, baby boomers have high rates of earlier life substance use1,7-11 (lifetime rates of use of illicit drug use, 47.4% versus 19.3%)11.
Source: The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry - Category: Geriatrics Authors: Source Type: research