Research Article
Sleep and Hazardous Drinking in the Elderly: A Clarion Call for Increased Clinical and Translational Research
Ilana S. Hairston*School of Behavioral Sciences, Academic College of Tel Aviv – Jaffa, Israel
- *Corresponding Author:
- Ilana S. Hairston
School of Behavioral Sciences
Academic College of Tel Aviv – Jaffa
Rabeno Yeruham, Box 8401
Jaffa 61083, Israel
Tel: +972-3-6802558
E-mail: ilanahai@mta.ac.il
Received July 10, 2012; Accepted July 12, 2012; Published July 14, 2012
Citation: Hairston IS (2012) Sleep and Hazardous Drinking in the Elderly: A Clarion Call for Increased Clinical and Translational Research. J Addict Res Ther 3:e109. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000e109
Copyright: © 2012 Hairston IS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Understanding factors that contribute to the onset and maintenance of alcohol use disorders (AUD) has been a central goal of public health policy and federal funding mechanisms for several decades. To date, the majority of empirical studies describing trajectories of alcoholism focused primarily on the period between drinking onset and young adulthood. By contrast, there is a dearth of research focusing on drinking behaviors during late adulthood through midlife and aging. Consequently, risk factors that contribute to the onset and maintenance of AUD later in life are not well defined.