The Combined Problems of Alcoholism, Drug Addiction and Aging

This 360-page book is orderly and thorough. There are 40 contributors to its 28 chapters, and it is written in a readable style, packed with information blending the three title topics in an updated compilation of research, theory and practice, experience, and treatment. This work is a breakthrough, giving recognition to growing problems in geriatric medicine and public health. Heretofore the separate subjects of aging and addiction have not received the attention they justly deserve. The expected 32 million elderly by the year 2000 will demand care in these combined problem areas; this volume introduces the known data and indicated areas for further research from many resources. Some findings were unexpected and puzzling: "Hardly any clients with high resources before [alcohol] intake were abstainers at follow up" (14 to 16 years later [p 222]). "Among those mentally alert, in relation to antecedent variables, abstainers were very different from moderate drinkers,"