Stressful situations in life, use and abuse of alcohol and drugs by elderly in Monterrey, Mexico.

This is a descriptive, qualitative, and correlation study with 112 elderly aged 60 years or older. This study aimed to identify differences in alcohol consumption according to gender and marital status, and differences in the consumption of medical drugs by gender. It also aims to determine differences in stressful life events by gender, and differences in stressful life events associated to alcohol and medical drugs use and abuse, as well as to know their perceptions on the most stressful life events they have experienced. The results showed significant differences in alcohol consumption by gender (U=154.0, p <0.01), in which the consumption was higher for men. It was reported that the medical drugs consumption (C2 =5.95, p <0.15) and life stress indexes (U=1038.5, p =0.10) are higher for women. The most stressful life events reported were: their health problems or those of their relatives, family and economic problems.