Question:
My wife and I moved into a retirement community recently. I’ve noticed a lot of
people I’d call alcoholics in this community. Do seniors drink more in these
places?
Answer: I
could find no information that demonstrated residents of retirement communities
drink more. However, these developments are, by nature, more social. So,
perhaps you’re just seeing more drinking. With more drinking, you’ll find more
people who don’t handle it well.
Alcoholism
is a serious problem among seniors. Here are just a few statistics that tell
the story:
About 70
percent of hospital admissions for older adults are for illness and accidents
related to alcohol.
About
half of older adults in nursing homes have an alcohol problem.
Older
adults lose an average of 10 years off their lives because of alcohol abuse.
About 80
percent of doctors misdiagnose alcoholism as depression in older women.
The
highest growing number of alcoholics is among 75-year-old widowers.
About 10
percent of patients over age 60 who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease are
actually suffering from brain damage caused by alcoholism.
“Alcohol
abuse among older adults is something few want to talk about or deal with,”
said Charles Curie, former administrator of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration . “Too often family members are ashamed of the
problem and choose not to address it.
Health
care providers tend not to ask older patients about alcohol abuse if it wasn’t
a problem in their lives in earlier years. Sometimes the symptoms are mistaken
for those of dementia, depression, or other problems common to older adults.
Unfortunately, too many older persons turn to alcohol as a comfort, following
the death of a spouse, a divorce, retirement, or some other major life change,
unaware that they are markedly affecting the quality of their lives.”
A few
definitions:
Alcoholism
is a disease with four symptoms: craving or compulsion to drink, the inability
to limit drinking, high alcohol tolerance, and physical dependence.
Alcohol
abuse does not include strong craving, loss of control or physical dependence.
Alcohol abuse is defined as drinking that causes problems in your life such as
failing at work, getting arrested for drunk driving, hurting someone physically
or emotionally because of drinking.
Moderate
drinking is defined as consuming up to two drinks per day for men and one drink
per day for women and older people. A standard drink is 12 ounces beer, 5
ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.
The
American Medical Association publishes the following list of physical symptoms
to diagnose alcoholism. If an older person shows several symptoms, there is a
high probability of alcoholism.
•
Bruises, abrasions, and scars in locations that might suggest frequent falls,
bumping into objects, physical altercations, or other violent behavior.
•
Cigarette burns on the fingers.
• Flushed
or florid faces.
• Jerky
eye movement or loss of central vision.
• Damage
to nerves causing numbness and tingling.
•
Hypertension, particularly systolic (the first number).
•
Gastrointestinal or other bleeding.
•
Cirrhosis or other evidence of liver impairment, such as swelling in the lower
extremities, and other signs of fluid retention.
•
Psoriasis.
If you
have a question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com
All
rights reserved. © 2008 by Fred Cicetti.