Alcohol Consumption and Benzodiazepine Use among Elderly - Results of the INTERREG Project Addiction and Elderly

作者：Kunz I; Dreher M; Schmidt V; Lang S; Hoffmann R; Auwaerter V; Yegles M; Kuehberger A; Laireiter A; Iglseder B; Thon N; Wurst F M^*

来源：Suchttherapie, 2014, 15(3): 105-112.

DOI：10.1055/s-0034-1382045

• addiction
• elderly
• alcohol
• benzodiazepine

Background: There are few studies about the prevalence of alcohol and benzodiazepine use among elderly employing besides self reports and third party reports also objective biomarkers. Therefore an EU funded INTERREG study was conducted in the county of Salzburg and 2 rural districts of Bavaria, Germany. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the alcohol consumption and the use of benzodiazepine among elderly in different settings using self reports and questionnaires, third party reports and biomarkers. %26lt;br%26gt;Method : 131 General Practitioners (GP) or internal specialists, 455 elderly in 33 nursing homes (NH) and 123 inpatients of 4 hospitals participated in this study. Additionally, third party reports were collected from the ward physicians, nurses and nursing managers for inpatients and elderly in nursing homes. In the nursing homes hair and urine was collected to analyze alcohol and benzodiazepine use by using chromatographic methods. %26lt;br%26gt;Results : a) The estimation of substance use disorders is with 30 % in hospitals very high, followed by the estimation of GPs/internal specialists with 10 % for patients over 60 years and 7 % in nursing homes. %26lt;br%26gt;b) According to the hair analysis almost 10 % of elderly in nursing homes almost 30 % of inpatients of hospitals drink above the recommendation of the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism which is 10 g ethanol per day. With regard to the benzodiazepine use employing chromatographic methods for urine analysis 34.2% of the urine samples of elderly in nursing homes and 28.6% of inpatients in hospitals were benzodiazepine positive. %26lt;br%26gt;c) Of 60 % of elderly in nursing homes who consume alcohol at an excessive level (%26gt;60 g /day) the nursing staff assumed that they are sober or drink moderately. %26lt;br%26gt;d) Of 68% of elderly in nursing homes who use benzodiazepine according to the laboratory analyses the nursing staff did not know about the use. %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusion : Addiction problems among elderly are an important aspect as quality of life, physical and mental health may be influenced. Therefore the awareness must be increased among elderly, caregivers and physicians to diagnose the substance use disorder and to off er and facilitate treatment.

• 出版日期2014-8