Drug and Alcohol Abuse among the Elderly: Is Being Alone the Key?

1984 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Bradford Brown ◽  
Chi-Pang Chiang

Despite the rising incidence of drug and alcohol abuse among the elderly, information concerning the social and psychological factors fostering such abuse is scanty and potentially biased toward the limited number of older abusers who obtain professional help. Using a brief interview with carefully selected samples, the present study compares characteristics of social background and social support among 21 older clients (age 55 and over) of drug treatment facilities, 30 older abusers not in treatment, and 155 elderly nonabusers. Analyses suggest that age and gender affect the likelihood of receiving treatment for substance abuse more than the likelihood of being an abuser. Controlling for age and gender effects, substance abuse appeared more prevalent among single and divorced elderly and among respondents who lived alone; presence or absence of living companions was more influential than relationships with nearby social supports. Implications for health and social service programs as well as for further research are discussed.

1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (7) ◽  
pp. 1562-1565 ◽  
Author(s):  
S C Chien ◽  
A T Chow ◽  
J Natarajan ◽  
R R Williams ◽  
F A Wong ◽  
...  

The influence of age and gender on the pharmacokinetics of levofloxacin in healthy subjects receiving a single oral 500-mg dose of levofloxacin was investigated in this parallel design study. Six young males (aged 18 to 40 years), six elderly males (aged > or = 65 years), six young females (aged 18 to 40 years), and six elderly females (aged > or = 65 years) were enrolled and completed the study. The study reveals that the bioavailability (rate and extent) of levofloxacin was not affected by either age or gender. In both age (young and elderly) and gender (male and female) groups of subjects, peak concentrations in plasma were reached at approximately 1.5 h after dosing; renal clearance of levofloxacin accounted for approximately 77% of total body clearance, and approximately 76% of the administered dose was recovered unchanged in urine over the 36 h of collection. The apparent differences in the calculated pharmacokinetic parameters for levofloxacin between the age groups (young versus elderly) and between the gender groups (males versus females) could be explained by differences in renal function among the subjects. A single dose of 500 mg of levofloxacin administered orally to both young and old, male and female healthy subjects was found to be safe and well tolerated. As the differences in levofloxacin kinetics between the young and the elderly or the males and the females are limited and are mainly related to the renal function of the subjects, dose adjustment based on age or gender alone is not necessary.


Author(s):  
Luciana Albuquerque ◽  
Catarina Oliveira ◽  
António Teixeira ◽  
Pedro Sa-Couto ◽  
Daniela Figueiredo

2010 ◽  
Vol 158 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Kimiko Yoshimaru ◽  
Yoshihiko Nakazato ◽  
Naotoshi Tamura ◽  
Nobuo Araki

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 170321 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Abdouni ◽  
M. Djaghloul ◽  
C. Thieulin ◽  
R. Vargiolu ◽  
C.  Pailler-Mattei ◽  
...  

The human finger plays an extremely important role in tactile perception, but little is known about how age and gender affect its biophysical properties and their role in tactile perception. We combined studies on contact characteristics, mechanical properties and surface topography to understand age and gender effects on the human finger. The values obtained regarding contact characteristics (i.e. adhesive force) were significantly higher for women than for men. As for mechanical properties (i.e. Young's modulus E ), a significant and positive correlation with age was observed and found to be higher for women. A positive correlation was observed between age and the arithmetic mean of surface roughness for men. However, an inverse age effect was highlighted for women. The age and gender effects obtained have never been reported previously in the literature. These results open new perspectives for understanding the weakening of tactile perception across ages and how it differs between men and women.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Camila Lourencini Cavellani ◽  
Rosana Rosa Miranda Corrêa ◽  
Mara Lúcia Fonseca Ferraz ◽  
Laura Penna Rocha ◽  
Ana Carolina Guimarães Faleiros ◽  
...  

Background. The present study explores the influence of the host’s age and gender upon the inflammatory infiltrate. We aimed to quantify the inflammatory infiltrate caused by cysticercosis, which is related to aging, in the heart and in the encephalon.Methods. 75 autopsy protocols with cysticercosis diagnosis from department of pathology at a university hospital from 1970 to 2008 were reviewed. Two groups were formed: elderly with cysticercosis and nonelderly with cysticercosis. We used KS-300 (Kontron-Zeiss) software for morphometric analysis of the inflammation.Results.The elderly had an average of3.1±2.5cysticerci, whereas the non-elderly had2.7±3.8parasites. The non-elderly group with cysticercosis had significantly more inflammation, both cardiac and encephalic, than the elderly group. The elderly females with cysticercosis had more cardiac and encephalic inflammation.Conclusions. In this study, we showed that the non-elderly had significantly more cardiac and encephalic inflammation than the elderly, and that such inflammatory infiltrate decreases with age and depends upon the evolutionary stage of the cysticercus. Furthermore, there are differences concerning gender in the intensity of the inflammatory response due to cysticerci in the heart and brain parenchyma during senescence. Even during this period, women continue to have a more intense response to the parasitosis.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve M. J. Janssen ◽  
Ai Uemiya ◽  
Makiko Naka

Pharmacology ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Greenblatt ◽  
Marcia K. Divoll ◽  
Darrell R. Abernethy ◽  
Hermann R. Ochs ◽  
Jerold S. Harmatz ◽  
...  

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