Gender differences in substance use disorders

The notion of meaningful differences between men and women in many aspects of substance use disorders is a topic that has received increasing attention over the past decade. Before this recent era of investigation, substance use was considered to be primarily a male problem, and many of the studies of both alcoholism and drug abuse were conducted with a predominance of male subjects. In this article, the findings concerning gender differences in key areas related to development, diagnosis, and national trends in substance-use disorders are reviewed.