New Resource on Addressing Specific Substance Abuse Treatment Needs of Women

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Older years are filled with many adjustments and challenges, often including loss of spouse and close friends, retirement, and reduced income. Some women turn to alcohol or drugs to help meet these life changes. Because many older women live alone (40 percent of those aged 65 and older [FIFARS 2004]), their substance use is difficult to measure (Moore et al. 1989). Older women tend to hide their substance use because they attach greater stigma to it than men do (CSAT 1998d). Older women are less likely than older men to drink or use drugs in public, so they are less likely to drive while intoxicated or engage in other behavior that might reveal a substance use disorder (SAMHSA 2008).

Substance use disorders in older women often go undetected by primary care professionals because of a lack of appropriate diagnostic criteria and because many signs of abuse can be mistaken for other conditions more prevalent in later life (e.g., cognitive impairment, anemia, physiological consequences from falls). It is not unusual for older patients to show poor compliance with the recommended use of their medications (Menninger 2002).

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