Substance Use Among Older Adults

The NHSDA Report:  Substance Use Among Older Adults 

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 Highlights:

• In 2000, an estimated 568,000 persons aged 55 or older had used illicit drugs in the past month and over 5 million were "binge" alcohol users, including more than 1 million who were heavy alcohol users.

• Among older adults, whites had higher rates of past month illicit drug use compared with Hispanics and higher rates of past month  alcohol use compared with either blacks or Hispanics.

• The number of illicit drug users among older adults is likely to increase in the coming years due to the aging of the "baby boom" generation.

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This Short Report, The NHSDA Report:  Substance Use Among Older Adults,  is based on SAMHSA's  National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), now called the  National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).  The survey is conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse and for selected mental health measures in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.   SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use & Health also provides estimates for drug use and for selected mental health measures by State.

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This page was last updated on May 5, 2006.

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