ADDICTIVE BEHAVIOR OF OLDER ADULTS

Very little is known about addictive alcohol use by older people. In t he present paper, personal effects reasons for drinking (i.e., drinkin g for the effects of alcohol) and concerns about drinking were used as indicators of addictive drinking behavior among a sample of 826 peopl e aged 65 and older who participated in survey interviews in their hom es The relationship of addictive drinking behavior to frequency of dri nking, quantity of drinks per occasion, and depressant drug use was ex amined. Alcohol use was higher among males and young-old (aged 65-74), while depressant medication use was higher among females and old-old (aged 75 +). However. with the exception of use of over-the-counter me dications containing codeine (which was significantly higher among cur rent drinkers), no relationship existed between alcohol use and use of depressant medications. Personal effects reasons for drinking and con cerns about drinking were related both to alcohol and depressant medic ation use. Frequency of drinking was associated with higher endorsemen t of both personal effects and social reasons, whereas volume of alcoh ol consumption (drinks per drinking day) was associated only with pers onal effects drinking. In addition, use of depressant medications by d rinkers was significantly related to consuming alcohol for personal ef fects reasons (but unrelated to consuming for social reasons) and with having concerns about one's own drinking. These results suggest that even within the generally low levels of alcohol consumption of older p eople, addictive-use patterns emerge. In addition, the results confirm the importance of including depressant medication use in evaluating t he drinking behavior of older people.