Substance abuse in seniors expected to rise

For a 63-year-old Miami school librarian who had never taken a sip of alcohol, the threat of addiction never crossed her mind. Thinking her prescription for Xanax, a popular drug in treating anxiety, was as safe as her blood pressure medicine, she and her family didn’t see the warning signs of addiction until the weekend Maria slept for five days straight. That’s when her daughter, son and husband admitted her to South Miami Hospital’s Addiction Treatment Center, where she was detoxified. While addiction often is associated with young people, Maria’s situation is not at all uncommon. According to a recent report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of U.S. adults age 50 or older needing substance abuse treatment is expected to double from 2.8 million to 5.7 million by the year 2020. A 2010 report by the Drug Abuse Warning Network said drugs used for pain relief, anxiety or insomnia were involved in almost a quarter of adverse drug reactions among older adults. “Oxycontin is the number one problematic drug right now. But also, older people tend to deal with more feelings of loneliness and sadness and are prescribed anxiety and anti-depressants that can be abused as well,” said Chip Hobbs, residential services manager at South Miami Hospital’s Addiction Treatment Center. For about 80 percent of the population, prescribing these drugs is the right thing to do, he said. For about 20 to 25 percent, however, there is a risk of developing a dependency. Painkillers “are supposed to be prescribed in combination with physical therapy in order to heal the injury,” Hobbs said. “But what happens is that the drug itself can promote pain. All of a sudden, the drug has a life of its own and it starts to create pain in the patient. They then go back to the doctor and, if the doctor has not been trained in addiction medicine, they, of course, have to treat pain. That’s when they get locked up with a patient that all of a sudden loses their prescription or something happens to it. The patient starts calling in earlier and earlier than normal for a refill and that’s sort of a flag now.” Maria started taking Xanax when she was about 40. “I had a lot of problems with a child I adopted because he was an addict, and ended up having a nervous breakdown,” Maria said. “My doctor in Puerto Rico prescribed me Xanax, with a dosage of 2mg.” “Xanax is an interesting drug,” Hobbs said. “Say you take 1mg a day, tomorrow morning half a milligram will still be in your system. Eventually the drug starts accumulating and the body gains tolerance.” Maria said she would cut the pill into smaller pieces and take a little bit when she woke up, in the afternoon. She would take a whole pill when she went to bed at night. “The pill made me very sleepy,” she said. “All I would want to do is sleep in order to forget about everything. I didn’t know what I was doing was bad.” Eventually, Maria decided to cut back on her own but realized the side effects were unbearable. “When I stopped taking it, I was nervous, shaking a lot, sweating and it was more or less like a panic attack,” Maria said. “But eventually, I started to get better.”