When drinking problems tarnish the golden years

The stereotype of an alcoholic is one of an unkempt, down-and-out street person. But researchers and clinicians are discovering an 'invisible epidemic' of drinking problems among older men and women. Alcohol related disorders are common among the elderly, and a study in the British Journal of Medicine says that the ageing of populations is likely to result in an increase in their numbers.

Although there is a paucity of population-based data on alcoholism specific to Hong Kong, the mainland, and Asia, it appears to be a rapidly expanding problem, says Lam Tai-hing, Sir Robert Kotewall professor and director of the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong. 'In China, alcohol is heavily promoted, and drinking white spirits with high alcohol content is very common. In Hong Kong, the beer and wine tax has been reduced to zero since 2008, with rapidly expanding promotion, advertisements, trade and consumption,' says Lam.

Drinking in late life

Alcohol problems among the elderly tend to differ. Some elderly people have been drinking excessively for most of their lives. Others use relatively small amounts of alcohol, but mix it with prescribed medications in harmful ways. Still others develop alcohol problems late in life.

Late life drinking problems - those that begin after the age of 60 - develop for a variety of reasons. Elderly people find that the listings in their address books dwindle as friends and family move or pass away. Health problems begin to interfere with their ability to get out and about. Little by little, almost without realising it, someone can become isolated and lonely, and seek comfort from the bottle.

'Old people who live alone appear to be at greater risk for alcoholism,' says Dr Barnett Meyers, professor of psychiatry and clinical epidemiology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in White Plains, New York. A glass of wine at lunch and then at dinner, or a few bottles of beer in front of the television, may seem like a 'quick fix'. It helps the drinker to relax, get comfortable, numb the pain of loneliness, get a good night's sleep, and re-create warm memories of times that were once spent with a spouse.

An invisible epidemic