Increases in Substance Abuse Treatment

The number of substance abuse treatment admissions among adults age 55 or older has increased.

In 2001, there were 58,000 treatment admissions age 55 or older—about 3 percent of the 1.7 million treatment admissions in the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), according to a new report from SAMHSA's Drug and Alcohol Services Information System (DASIS).

TEDS is an annual compilation of data on admissions for substance abuse treatment.

Among admissions age 55 or older, alcohol was reported as the primary substance of abuse more frequently than among younger admissions (74 percent vs. 44 percent). Cocaine and marijuana were reported less frequently among older admissions than among younger admissions (5 percent vs. 13 percent and 1 percent vs. 15 percent, respectively).

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of older admissions reported abuse of alcohol alone, with no secondary drug abuse, while less than one-quarter (23 percent) of admissions younger than age 55 reported abuse of alcohol alone.

In addition, admissions for age 55 and older were more likely than younger admissions to enter treatment through self-referral (41 percent vs. 36 percent) and more likely to receive detoxification services than younger admissions (36 percent vs. 25 percent).

Older admissions were less likely than younger admissions to be referred through the criminal justice system (25 percent vs. 35 percent).

For a copy of the DASIS Report, Older Adults in Substance Abuse Treatment: 2001, contact SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information at P.O. Box 2345, Rockville, MD 20847-2345. Telephone: 1 (800) 729-6686 (English and Spanish) or 1 (800) 487-4889 (TDD). Online, the report is available on the SAMHSA Web site at http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k4/olderAdultsTX/
olderAdultsTX.htm.

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