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A successful former businessman develops a sudden fear of driving. A longtime homemaker is convinced she never has enough groceries in the house. It’s a pattern familiar to many of us with aging parents: the overwhelming worry or constant nervousness over day-to-day tasks, from taking medications to parking the car. Left untreated, this anxiety-related agitation in the elderly can disrupt sleep and eating, exacerbate chronic medical conditions, and ultimately contribute to a downward spiral of fear and isolation. Anxiety occurs in older Americans with surprising frequency. In fact, some reports estimate anxiety affects between 10 and 20 percent of the older [...]

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 [...]

America’s opioid epidemic has reached crisis proportions, enough so that last week the United States Surgeon General took the unprecedented step of sending a letter to 2.3 million American health care professionals asking them to take a pledge to “turn the tide” on the opioid crisis. Relieving pain is an essential element of good care, and we are appropriately reminded that the use of these powerful medications requires precision, caution, and perspective. Excerpted from an article by Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, President of The John A. Hartford Foundation. She is nationally and internationally recognized as a leading expert in geriatrics, [...]

People in America today can expect to live longer than ever before. Once you make it to 65, the data suggest that you can live another 19.3 years, on average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For many, then, senior living includes carefully managing chronic conditions in order to stay healthy. Making healthy lifestyle choices, like quitting smoking and losing weight, can help you avoid senior health risks, though “you also need to be physically active and eat a healthy diet," explains Jeanne Wei, MD, PhD, executive director of the Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University [...]

It’s become a popular belief that many people become addicted to opioid pain medication after surgery. According to a recent national survey, one in ten pain patients believe they became addicted or dependent on opioids after they started taking them for post-operative pain. But a large new study in Canada found that long term opioid use after surgery is extremely rare, with less than one percent of older adults still taking opioid pain medication a year after major elective surgery. The study, published in the journal JAMA Surgery, looked at over 39,000 “opioid naïve” patients (no opioid prescriptions in the prior [...]

Older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who start using opioids have a more than two-fold higher risk of dying from a respiratory-related complication compared to non-opioid users, St. Michael's Hospital researchers have found. When researchers looked specifically at more potent opioids, they found the risk for respiratory-related death was five times higher for new opioid users compared to non-opioid users. Excerpted from an article on News-Medical.Net. To read the full article, click here.

Delirium—a state of confusion that develops suddenly, often following an acute illness or hospitalization—is estimated to impact more than 2.5 million older adults in the U.S. every year, though it often goes undetected. Post-operative delirium, or delirium that sets in after a surgical procedure, impacts as many as 50% of elders at an estimated cost of $164 billion per year.   Excerpted from an article by Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH, Director, Aging Brain Center, Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife in the Huffington Post. To read the full article, click here.

Today, federal and state governments, as well as hospitals and clinics, are struggling with the country’s devastating opioid epidemic. With prescription pain medication abuse a driving factor, the focus has mostly been on younger and middle-aged people and restricting drug access. However, millions of older people experience chronic, even debilitating pain and desperately need relief. We must take a balanced approach so that older adults can continue to make contributions to their communities and families and continue to live well as they age. Excerpted from an article by Terry Fulmer in the Huffington Post. To read full article, click here.

Dr. Cary Reid of TRIPLL was quoted in a New York Times article titled, “New Opioid Limits Challenge the Most Pain-Prone”, commenting on the importance of proper treatment of chronic pain and the reluctance of older adults to use opioid medication. Read Full article here.

The dictionary defines ageism as the "tendency to regard older persons as debilitated, unworthy of attention, or unsuitable for employment." But research indicates that ageism may not just be ill-informed or hurtful. It may also be a matter of life and death. Not that it's literally killing people. Researcher Becca Levy, a professor of epidemiology and psychology at the Yale School of Public Health, says it depends on how much a given individual takes those negative ideas to heart. In one study, Levy looked at people's attitudes about aging when they were in late middle age and then followed them over time. [...]