Who is in danger of substance misuse?
A large number of older adults misuse alcohol, prescription drugs, or other substances, and this number is growing bigger. Almost one in every five older Americans drink alcohol or use medications unsafely. You don’t have to drink first thing in the morning or drink every day to have problems caused by drinking. For some older people, any alcohol use can be a problem. It depends on how your body responds to alcohol, the medications you may be taking, your current health, and what else is going on in your life. Why are the dangers different for older people? Getting older causes changes in your body that can make you respond differently to alcohol and medications. These changes mean that there are differences between the way older adults and younger adults’ bodies can handle alcohol. For example, the same “couple of beers” you may have been drinking for years can affect you differently as you get older. The same amount of alcohol or number of drinks that had hardly any effect before can
