According to Carol Colleran, director of the Hazelden Foundation and author of research on addiction in old age, retirement and cessation of working life often becomes a trigger for alcohol abuse. Retirement is the point at which very often people who have previously led active lives, making important decisions on a daily basis, suddenly lose the sense that they are needed and - to reduce the stress of feeling useless - turn to alcohol.

A study of more than 1,000 people is currently underway at Cornell University to help understand the problem of alcohol abuse among this age group.