A Review of Existing Treatments for Substance abuse among the Elderly and Recommendations for Future Directions

With population aging, there is widespread recognition that the healthcare system must be prepared to serve the unique needs of substance using older adults (OA) in the decades ahead. As such, there is an increasingly urgent need to identify efficient and effective substance abuse treatments (SAT) for OA. Despite this need, there remains a surprising dearth of research on treatment for OA. AIMS OF REVIEW: This review describes and evaluates studies on SAT applied to and specifically designed for OA over the last 30 years with an emphasis on methodologies used and the knowledge gained.