Prescription Drug Abuse Among Older Adults Is Harder to Detect

//Prescription Drug Abuse Among Older Adults Is Harder to Detect

Drug addiction is not restricted to the young. Donna Weber, now 53, turned to painkillers after undergoing simple surgery. Then a long, tortured path to divorce made her anxious and depressed. Soon, she found herself on a candy-colored pill roller coaster.

Unlike street drugs, the pharmaceutical pills were easy to obtain legally. She got them from emergency rooms, dentists, psychiatrists, even plastic surgeons. “I went to doctors with exaggerated truths,” explained Ms. Weber, who once had four doctors. “I said I hurt more and more.”

 

Excerpted from an article by Constance Gustke for the New York Times. To read the full article, please click here.

2018-09-27T22:48:19-04:00

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