Citation

St John PD, Snow WM, Tyas SL. Rev. Clin. Gerontol. 2010; 20(1): 56-68.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S0959259810000031

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Alcohol use is common in older adults and is associated with numerous health and social problems. Recent evidence suggests that in addition to level of alcohol consumption, drinking pattern may also be important. Moderate alcohol intake may confer some cardiac benefits, while heavy episodic drinking seems particularly problematic. Detecting alcohol misuse in older adults is difficult since clinical acumen is often poor, screening questionnaires have serious limitations and laboratory tests are not diagnostic. Brief alcohol interventions to reduce alcohol consumption appear useful in younger populations, but are less studied in older adults. While there is increasing research into the issue of alcohol use among older adults, clinicians and policy-makers must rely on limited evidence when making clinical decisions. Copyright © 2010 Cambridge University Press.

Language: en

Keywords

human; age; gender; suicide; accident; dementia; alcoholism; head injury; depression; prevalence; screening; alcohol use; mortality; education; clinical trial; older people; risk factor; review; alcohol abuse; alcohol consumption; pancreatitis; motivation; primary medical care; questionnaire; antidepressant agent; disease association; drinking behavior; fracture; marriage; cognitive defect; sleep disorder; grief; nonhuman; tuberculosis; falling; family history; benzodiazepine; retirement; delirium; naltrexone; case finding; disulfiram; senescence; peripheral neuropathy; cerebellum disease; urine incontinence; esophagitis; clinical decision making; liver cirrhosis; thiamine; alcohol withdrawal; diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders; gamma glutamyltransferase; clinical assessment; thrombocyte count; fatty liver; acute hepatitis; alcohol rehabilitation program; public health problem; esophagus cancer; peptic ulcer; Wernicke Korsakoff syndrome; gamma glutamyl transferase blood level; megalocytosis