Deaths from alcohol and drug use are rising among seniors in America

Over two decades drug overdose deaths among people aged 65 and older have more than tripled in America

According to data published by the National Center for Health Statistics on Wednesday, deaths from alcohol abuse increased by more than 18% from 2019 to 2020. According to separate data from the Health and Human Services Department, 2.7 million seniors suffered from alcohol addiction and more than 800,000 suffered from drug addiction in 2020.

In 2020, more than 11,600 seniors died of alcohol consumption and more than 5,000 succumbed to drug overdoses, according to the NCHS data. Generally, drug overdose death rates are higher in other age groups than in seniors but they have increased substantially to 8.8 per 100,000 in 2020 from 2.4 per 100,000 in 2000.

Alexis Kuerbis, an expert on substance use among older adults and a professor at the Silberman School of Social Work said that a great public health problem coming at the door, and these trends among the older generation have been increasing for a long time now. According to the data, deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have increased by 53% among seniors from 2019 to 2020.