CONTENTS

Table of Contents
Introduction

1. Overview
2. Alcohol
3. Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medications
4. Barriers to Recognizing Problems
5. Signs and Symptoms of Misuse
6. Talking About Sensitive Issues
7. Assessing a Problem
8. Preventing Misuse
9. Intervention and Treatment

Supplements
Resources

Alcohol, Medication and Older Adults
For Those Who Care About or Care for an Older Adult

General Signs of Prescription or Over-the-Counter Medicine Misuse

• Sudden unexplained mood changes
• Irritability
• Lack of energy and concentration
• Loss of short-term memory
• General loss of interest

Psychoactive drugs are of particular concern for misuse among older adults. These drugs are more likely to interact with other drugs and alcohol. Psychoactive drugs also have a greater potential for misuse.

Warning Signs of a Prescription Drug Problem

• Excessively worrying about whether prescription drugs are "really working" to alleviate numerous physical complaints; complaints that the drug prescribed has lost its effectiveness over time
• Showing detailed knowledge about a specific psychoactive drug and attaching great significance to its efficacy and personal impact
• Worrying about having enough pills or whether it is time to take them to the extent that other activities revolve around the dosage schedule
• Continuing to use and to request refills when the condition for which the drug was originally prescribed has or should have improved; not wanting to stop or decrease the dose of a prescribed psychoactive drug
• Complaining about doctors who refuse to write prescriptions for preferred drugs, who decrease dosages, or who do not take symptoms seriously
• Self-medicating by increasing doses of prescribed psychoactive drugs that "are not working anymore" or supplementing prescribed drugs with over-the-counter medications
• Withdrawing from family, friends, and neighbors
• Withdrawing from normal and lifelong social interaction
• Sleeping during the day and other sleep disturbances
• Bruising, burns, fractures, or other trauma, particularly if the individual does not remember how and when they were acquired
• Seeing changes in personal grooming and hygiene