Effective Treatments for Older Adult Baby Boomers with Alcohol-Use Disorders: A Literature Review

Research on patterns of alcohol use among the older adult baby boomer birth cohort suggests considerable challenges to the health care system in the coming decades. This review contributes to the growing knowledge base by summarizing and categorizing the most effective alcohol-use treatments for use with the baby boomer cohort. Following a manual search of more than 7,000 articles published between 1990 and 2015, a review of 19 relevant articles was performed based on guidelines set by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Five articles were rated as good, 11 were rated as fair, and 3 were rated as poor. The publications were divided into 4 interpretive categories consisting of clinic-based interventions, mail-based interventions, primary care physician feedback, and day treatment. Overall, the results suggest that cognitive behavior-based treatments for alcohol-use disorders, both clinic-based and mail-based, might be effective in reducing drinking among baby boomers. Implications and future research ...