The older adult population is growing by leaps and bounds. Dramatic lifestyle changes, along with growing health problems, have led many to turn to alcohol, prescription painkillers, and marijuana to medicate their physical and psychological pain. You may think, Dad is just enjoying cocktails and retirement, or Mom still has pain and needs her pills. Maybe so, but consider that an estimated 17 percent of people age sixty and older struggle with substance misuse and addiction. Older adults are now hospitalized as often for alcohol-related problems as they are for heart attacks.

Dr. Harry Haroutunian
In this book, Dr. Haroutunian, physician director of the Licensed Health Professionals Program at the Betty Ford Center, provides you with the information needed to understand the dynamics of addiction in older adults: To clearly distinguish between the signs of aging and the signs of addiction, many of which overlap, To identify the indications of drug misuse and its progression to addiction, to understand the unique treatment needs of older adults, and to get the help you—as a caregiver or loved one—need to cope with your loved one’s addiction.
This essential guide can help you transform stress and chaos into understanding and compassion.
Harry Haroutunian, an internationally known speaker and authority on addiction-oriented topics—including drug misuse among older adults—is widely read online and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show and Dr. Drew On Call and in the New York Times and Cosmopolitan. Board certified in both addiction and family medicine, he serves as physician director of professional and residential programs at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California.
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