Old and High

Despite the stereotype of older adults primarily abusing alcohol, clinical practice insights indicate that the baby-boom generation frequently abuses the same substances as younger adultsΓÇöincluding alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines/z-drugs, neurostimulants, cannabis, and tobacco/nicotine. Old and High exposes this hidden epidemic and emphasizes the importance of understanding psychotropic substance abuse as a community health problem. Further, the bookidentifies the unique cultural values, social values, and risks that baby-boom adults have with respect to substance abuse and misuse to give students and clinical professionals in psychology, social work, gerontology, nursing, and medicine a foundation for working with this population. Readers will,specifically, learn how to integrate current neuroscience findings with contemporary psychotherapy techniques and harm-reductive interventions to help older adults achieve successful recovery from substance abuse problems. Considering that we will likely observe an increase in rates of substance abuse as the baby-boom generation continues to ageΓÇöand live longer than previous groupsΓÇöthere will be a major need to better understand the unique risk factors and treatment approaches when workingwith older adults.