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Drug Dependence and Abuse among the Elderly - Essay Example

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The author of this paper "Drug Dependence and Abuse among the Elderly" tells that drug or alcohol dependency among the adults presents serious dangers and health challenges that are slightly different from those likely to occur among the youths. …

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Drug Dependence and Abuse among the Elderly

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Subject: Medical science
Type: Essay
Level: Masters
Pages: 1 (250 words)
Downloads: 2
Author: gbeier

Extract of sample "Drug Dependence and Abuse among the Elderly"

The shrinking nature of the brains of the elderly people has the potential to cause serious cognitive impairments upon dependence on a given drug. Compared to youths who depend on given drugs, drug-dependent elderly are likely to suffer from serious and extremely visual and hearing impairments. Drug dependent elderly people may also suffer from poor memory as well as develop serious linguistic and communication skills (Parker & Liu, 2007). Despite the differences, drug dependence among the elderly and the youths cause results in nearly similar consequences.

For instance, drug dependence across the age groups is likely to cause damage to internal organs. The extent and speed of damage may largely rely on the quantity and frequency of intake (Parker & Liu, 2007). Drug dependence among individuals across the two age groups is also likely to lead to psychosis. Psychosis condition may present as either hallucination or delusion or both. Hallucination involves seeing and hearing things that do not exist in reality. Delusion, on the other hand, refers to believing of myths and concepts that are not true and hard to prove.

These consequences have occurred in both youths and the elderly who abuse and depend on drugs.

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