Aging and Addicted: The Opioid Epidemic Affects Older Adults, Too
December 22, 2016
(Kaiser Health News) – As the nation grapples with a devastating opioid epidemic, concerns have primarily focused on young people buying drugs on the street. But America’s elderly also have a problem. Over the past several decades, physicians have increasingly prescribed seniors pain medications to address chronic pain from arthritis, cancer, neurological diseases and other illnesses that become more common in later life.