Prescription Drugs

When drugs come from a doctor’s prescription pad, misuse is harder to identify. We assume pharmaceutical drugs are only used for treating medical conditions, but many older adults take mood-altering medications for non-medical reasons.

As people age, their bodies absorb, metabolize, distribute, and eliminate drugs differently than when they were younger. Normal adult doses of medication, both prescription and over-the-counter, can cause dangerous side effects and toxicity. By virtue of age, older patients may misuse medications without knowing it.

Some older adults or seniors intentionally abuse mood-altering medications. Sleeping aids, tranquillizers, and pain pills are common medications of abuse. Seeking pleasurable effects or attempting to ease feelings of grief and loneliness, older adults take larger doses than recommended. Over time, they develop a tolerance to the drug. Achieving the same effect requires more and more of the drug. They may mix the pills with alcohol to increase the effect. They may go to more than one doctor to ask for the same prescription to increase their supply. They may stay on the drug much longer than recommended. These are symptoms of addiction.

Characteristics of Addiction to Medications:

• Loss of control over the use of the drug.
• Continues use despite problems associated with use.
• Denial of the problem.
• Attempts to control use of the drug ultimately fail.
• The true intent is to alter mood, not treat a diagnosed illness.
• The drug makes life worse, not better.
• Increased dishonesty and defensiveness develops.
• Sobriety requires specific chemical dependency treatment.

Family members may believe that when an older adult becomes addicted to prescription drugs, the primary care physician will diagnose the problem. In fact, a recent study showed that 94% of primary car physicians miss the diagnosis of chemical dependency. More than half of the doctors surveyed said they do not ask about substance abuse. Dr. David M. Smith of the American Society of Addiction Medicine says, “We take prescription drug abuse too lightly as a health issue.”

Families sometimes ignore a suspected addiction to prescription drugs out of a misguided sense of protecting the older adult’s privacy. They allow the problem to continue, thinking the older adult and his doctor will handle the problem. But this can be a recipe for disaster. Families must educate themselves, partner with medical professionals, consult with addiction specialists, and learn to properly intervene on addiction.