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Specialized Treatment for Older Addicts Growing   More addiction programs in the U.S. are opening special treatment centers to accommodate growing numbers of addicts over age 50, the New York Times reported March 6. The Hanley Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., which only accepts patients aged 55 and older, is the nation's best known program for older addicts. "We have different health issues, different emotional issues, different grief issues," said Patrick Gallagher, 66, a Hanley Center patient. "We need more peace and quiet and a different pace." In addition to special inpatient and outpatient treatment programs for older addicts, some programs that treat addicts of all ages are adding counselors trained in elder issues. Screening of older Americans for drug problems also has increased. Experts are bracing for a wave of Baby Boomers who are dealing with addiction issues as they depart middle age. For example, federal data shows that about 10 percent of those entering treatment in 2005 were over age 50, up from 8 percent in 2001, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is predicting that there will be 4.4 million older people in the U.S. with drug problems by 2020, up from 1.7 million in 2001. Such numbers are "likely to swamp the system," said SAMHSA research coordinator Deborah Trunzo. Hanley officials note that older addicts can't all be lumped into a single group, either: addicts in their early 50s are the fastest-growing cohort entering treatment, but often have little in common with more elderly patients. Both tend to struggle primarily with alcohol addiction and prescription-drug abuse, but addiction to other drugs like cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine is more common among the "young old," experts said.   Middle Aged Drinking, Smoking Linked with Earlier Alzheimer's Researchers found an apparent link between heavy drinking or heavy smoking by people in their 40s and the development of Alzheimer's disease decades later, Health Day News reported April 16. One study of people 60 and older diagnosed with possible or probable Alzheimer's found earlier onset for the disease for heavy drinkers -- 4.8 years earlier for those who had consumed more than two drinks a day -- and for heavy smokers -- 2.3 years earlier for those who had smoked a pack of cigarettes or more a day. "The current thinking is that the pathology of Alzheimer's disease builds up over many years before clinical symptoms are manifest," said Dr. Ranjan Duara, director of the Mount Sinai Medical Center Wien Center for Alzheimer's Disease in Miami Beach. "People who start with a good cognitive reserve, who remain active mentally, are able to compensate for the pathology of the brain for a much longer period of time." Duara noted that both smoking and drinking can damage the brain. However, while it is agreed that any amount of smoking is bad, Duara said there remains "a bit of controversy" about heavy drinking and Alzheimer's, especially what amount of alcohol, if any, is safe. "I suggest that more than two drinks a day is probably not a good idea," Duara said. "No one has shown that one or two a day is not as good as three or four a day in protecting" general health. Rachel Whitmer, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente division of research in Oakland believes "... people need to be thinking about their risk factors for Alzheimer's disease even in their 40s. What is good for your heart is also good for your brain." The research was presented at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Chicago.  This article summarizes an external report or press release on research published in a scientific journal. When available, links to the sources are provided above. As posted on: Join Together Newsletter   Women, Whites & Young People More Likely to Abuse Meth, Prescription Drugs A study of addiction-treatment admissions finds that the profile of people addicted to methamphetamine and prescription narcotics differs from those who use non-stimulant drugs, Medical News Today reported March 31. People admitted to treatment for addiction to stimulant drugs are more likely to be young, white, and female than non-stimulant users in treatment. Study author Tracy Gunter, M.D., said better profiling of stimulant users would improve efforts to screen patients for addiction. "Methamphetamine and certain synthetic stimulants are purported to be 'super drugs' in that the effects are more intense and long-lasting than those produced by cocaine. Stimulants can cause a severe addictive disorder that is very hard, but not impossible, to treat," said Gunter of the University of Iowa's Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. "The more we know about who is likely to try meth, the more we can do to screen for substance abuse just as many primary caregivers currently screen for tobacco, alcohol or marijuana abuse." The researchers looked at a database containing information on 1.7 million treatment admissions and found that more than half of stimulant users were ages 21 to 34, while non-stimulant users tended to be older than 34. Forty-six percent of stimulant users were women, compared to 29 percent of non-stimulant users. And whites made up 79 percent of stimulant users, while just 3 percent were black and 18 percent were Native American, Asian, or members of ethnic groups. The study was published in the September 2006 issue of the journal Substance Use and Misuse.