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A new study sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) shows a dramatic increase in the number of older adults (age 50 and older) being treated for substance abuse. The study, called Changing Substance Abuse Patterns among Older Admissions: 1992 and 2008, tracked the proportion of admissions to substance abuse treatment facilities nationwide through the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) and found that those involving older adults nearly doubled in the last sixteen years. As the Baby Boomer generation reaches old age, many are bringing with them complex addiction disorders. Surprisingly, many of the illicit substance abuse disorders among this age group were developed within the last five years.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed an imaging protocol that allows them to visualize the activity of the brain’s reward circuitry in both normal individuals and those addicted to drugs. The technique could lead to better insight into why people take recreational drugs as well as help determine which treatment strategies might be most effective.
A study was presented at the Association of American Geographers’ annual meeting that featured the use of a map to trace the movement of a drug addict as he went through Baltimore. Clinicians from a methadone clinic gave him a GPS unit that tracked his movements every 25 meters. If he was still, his location was tracked every 25 miles.
Admitting that a family member, friend or other loved one has a drug problem is a hard reality for anyone to face. In fact, this tendency to want to ignore the problem is one of the things that lead to the bigger problem overall.
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