New research from the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future (MTF) panel revealed that middle-aged adults ages 35 to 50 are using marijuana and hallucinogens at record levels. Binge drinking had spiked to the "highest prevalence ... ever recorded for this age group," the panel study reported Thursday.
“There used to be a large gender gap in alcohol use and alcohol use disorder between men and women,” says Dawn Sugarman, a research psychologist at McLean Hospital and assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. “That is shrinking.”
Over the past couple of decades, problem drinking has risen most among 30- and 40-something women, says Aaron White, senior scientific adviser to the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, or NIAAA. Rates of drinking among teen girls has been declining, he says, but go up once women hit their 20s.