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A recent report, “Illicit Drug Use Among Older Adults,” from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) warned that the need for treatment services among older Americans may double in the next decade. Meaning there are new prevention tactics needed to address the rise in drug abuse among baby boomers.

The report found that an estimated 4.3 million Americans age 50 and older used illicit drugs during the past year, a figure that experts say “is on the rise and reflective of lifelong drug use by aging Baby Boomers.” Marijuana use was more prevalent than nonmedical use of prescription drugs for adults aged 50-59, but among those aged 65 or older, abuse of prescription drugs was more common.

Researchers hoped that the report will raise concern for the changes in addiction prevention and treatment that may be necessary to address the growing problem of older generations of substance abusers. “This new data has profound implications for the health and well-being of older adults who continue to abuse substances,” said a SAMHSA Administrator. “These findings highlight the need for prevention programs for all ages as well as to establish improved screening and appropriate referral to treatment as part of routine health care services.”

Common signs and symptoms of drug abuse (HelpGuide.org)

• You’re neglecting your responsibilities at school, work, or home (e.g. flunking classes, skipping work, neglecting your children) because of your drug use.
• You’re using drugs under dangerous conditions or taking risks while high, such as driving while on drugs, using dirty needles, or having unprotected sex.
• Your drug use is getting you into legal trouble, such as arrests for disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, or stealing to support a drug habit.
• Your drug use is causing problems in your relationships, such as fights with your partner or family members, an unhappy boss, or the loss of old friends.

• You’ve built up a drug tolerance. You need to use more of the drug to experience the same effects you used to attain with smaller amounts.
• You take drugs to avoid or relieve withdrawal symptoms. If you go too long without drugs, you experience symptoms such as nausea, restlessness, insomnia, depression, sweating, shaking, and anxiety.
• You’ve lost control over your drug use. You often do drugs or use more than you planned, even though you told yourself you wouldn’t. You may want to stop using, but you feel powerless.
• Your life revolves around drug use. You spend a lot of time using and thinking about drugs, figuring out how to get them, and recovering from the drug’s effects.
• You’ve abandoned activities you used to enjoy, such as hobbies, sports, and socializing, because of your drug use.
• You continue to use drugs, despite knowing it’s hurting you. It’s causing major problems in your life—blackouts, infections, mood swings, depression, paranoia—but you use anyway.

A study recently reported by the Washington Post found the new cocaine vaccine, TA-CD, does nothing to address the brain’s cravings for the drug. As a result, users were more likely to dangerously ingest larger quantities of cocaine in attempt to satisfy the cravings and overcome the vaccine’s effect.

The vaccine TA-CD is a series of shots that ultimately change the body’s chemistry. Working like most vaccines, TA-CD causes the body’s immune system to produce antibodies that stay active for eight to ten weeks. These antibodies bind to cocaine molecules in the blood, making them too large to pass into the brain, thus preventing any possible artificial high.

The study found that immunization did not achieve complete abstinence from cocaine use; however, previous research has shown a reduction in use and improvement in abuser’s social function thus rendering the vaccine to be therapeutically meaningful by some. In the recent study, according to the Washington Post, researchers found that subjects who were administered the drug stayed off cocaine more than half the time once they had built up a high level of antibodies and immunity to the drug, compared to 23 percent of those who built up fewer antibodies and less immunity. About one in four vaccine recipients failed to develop sufficient antibodies to block the drug’s effects, and scientists were unsure why this was the case.

After being administered the vaccine, abusers reported that doing cocaine became a very disappointing experience; however, their cravings to use the drugs were not reduced. Though this vaccine is being highlighted as “promising” by some scientists, and though none of the study’s participants overdosed, the situation posed by the vaccine makes overdosing a possible, serious problem if used as a treatment option. The idea of developing medication that “blocks addiction” has long been appealing, but the inability to get high combined with the presence of intense cravings could lead to lethal situations if relapse were to occur.

Researches at the University of California at San Francisco recently studied the behavior of intoxicated fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) that were given the option of drinking alcohol. The study, published Dec. 10, 2009 in the journal Current Biology, found that fruit flies consumed food spiked with alcohol faster than plain food and with preference for alcohol increasing over time. These findings could help researchers better understand the genetic groundwork of addiction.

Earlier studies have found that alcohol has profound physiological effects on fruit flies, but this new study was the first to offer flies a choice to drink. The researchers devised fly-sized drinking devices similar to water bottles in hamster cages. Flies were then kept inside vials and could drink from with liquid food spiked with alcohol or plain liquid food. The flies drank the former much quicker. The alcohol preference also became stronger over five days as the flies adjusted to the drinking, and flies that had been drinking longer preferred the higher proof mix (15% to 25%) while shorter-term drinkers did not (similar to tolerance).

The study also found that fruit flies who became accustomed to the alcohol continued to drink despite potential harm. The researchers laced the food containing alcohol with small amounts of the toxic chemical quinine, and the flies continued to drink, even though they normally avoid the chemical. In another test, the flies were allowed to drink freely for five days, then they were deprived of alcohol for either one or three days. After the “dry period,” the flies immediately returned to peak levels of drinking, demonstrating a hallmark of relapse.

“It’s known that there’s a strong genetic component to alcoholism,” one of the researches said, “and flies are one of the best model systems for genetics.” Researchers hope that the fruit fly model of alcoholism will provide future researchers with new experimental options for understanding the disease.