Book excerpt: Drug and Substance Abuse Among Older Adults provides a timely, comprehensive overview and analysis of the silent epidemic of drug and substance abuse involving elderly Americans. Combining the authors’ individual 50-plus years of formal academic and clinical experience, the book presents a critical reflective analysis and synthesis of the published research associated with older adult psychotropic drug use and abuse in the United Sates. Chapters delineate related causes and consequences and provide the reader with guidance on how to minimize and effectively deal with this significant and growing problem. Related professional reminders throughout each chapter emphasize and remind readers of important basic content and principles, while common misbeliefs regarding specific abusable psychotropics and their use by older adults are debunked and corrected. Also included are carefully developed figures and tables to supplement chapter content along with explicit guides and tools to facilitate the assessment and diagnosis of abusable psychotropic dependence or use disorder. Health and social care professionals in the U.S. will learn to assess and diagnose abusable psychotropic dependence or use disorders among older adults and to provide clients quickly and accurately with appropriate, efficacious, and empirically validated treatment.