Prescription Drug Addiction Among Seniors Could Double In 20 Years

The number of people 50 or older abusing prescription drugs could increase 190 percent over the next two decades, leading to unprecedented levels of elderly Americans succumbing to prescription drug addiction.

As baby boomers advance in age, they will bring with them their broad cultural acceptance of drugs, especially pharmaceuticals, which is expected to drive a corresponding rise in prescription drug addiction, abuse and dependency.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, America’s senior citizens comprise only 13 percent of the population, but consume a third of all medications prescribed in the nation. Seniors falling victim to prescription drug addiction, dependency and abuse could rise from 911,000 in 2001 to almost 2.7 million in 2020.

Institute Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D., recently told a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs that prescription drug abuse and dependency among older Americans is of particular concern.

“In a culture in which medications are considered a ‘quick fix’ for whatever ails you, combined with the greater rates of lifetime drug abuse among the baby boom generation as compared to those in the current older generation relative to its size, it is possible that the number of persons aged 50 or older abusing prescription drugs could increase 190 percent over the next two decades,” Dr. Volkow said.

Not only that, the need for more prescription drugs, and the effects that drugs have on us, both increase as we age, making the problems even worse for the elderly.

“Because older adults also experience higher rates of other illness as well as normal changes in drug metabolism, it makes sense that even moderate abuse or unintentional misuse of prescription drugs by elderly persons could lead to more severe health consequences,” Dr. Volkow said. “Therefore, physicians need to be aware of the possibility of abuse and to discuss the health implications with their patients.”

But the future is not just about baby boomers. What will the prescription drug addiction and abuse picture be like in 30 or 40 years, when the teenagers and young adults of today hit middle age?

Judging from current statistics it’s going to get a lot worse. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

In 2006, more than half a million adolescents aged 12-17 used stimulants non-medically in the past year.

Although abuse of sedatives decreased among high school seniors between 2005 and 2007, it is still near peak levels, at over 6 percent among this group.

Nearly 6 percent of 12th graders reported abusing cough medicine to get high in 2007.

Data on drug-related emergency department visits that involved prescription opioids show a 153 percent increase from 1995–2002, from 42,857 to 108,320.

Treatment admissions for prescription opiates surged from 16,121 in 1995 to 67,887 in 2005, a 321 percent increase.

The number of deaths involving prescription opioid analgesics increased 160 percent in just 5 years from 1999 to 2004. By 2004, and opioid painkiller abuse deaths outnumbered total deaths involving heroin and cocaine.

And in at least some areas of the country, the number of deaths from prescription drugs has been reported to now exceed the death rate from traffic accidents.

The soaring rates of prescription drug addiction and abuse, drug poisoning deaths, and all sorts of injuries are being driven primarily by prescribed pain medications, such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, Lortab, and the generic forms of hydrocodone and oxycodone.

A quick and simple solution to these monumental problems may not exist in the real world, but any solution must surely lie in the areas of education and prevention, not law enforcement after the fact. Prescription drug addiction and dependency can be treated, even among the elderly -- and seniors with drug problems aren’t a prominent factor in drug-related crime anyway. They’re mostly victims of, at best, hit-and-miss prescribing practices among too-busy physicians, pharmacists and homes for the aged.

The first action for anyone to take in recovering one’s life from prescription drug addiction or dependence is a detox program, followed by drug rehab if it’s required -- which often can be the case.

But for seniors, the term ‘medical’ drug detox should be emphasized. As Dr. Volkow points out, drugs can have dangerous effects on older bodies, and a medical drug detox is the safe way to become free of dependence and addiction.