Alcohol & Other Substance Abuse in Women

Question 1

Substance abuse

Answer 1

Use and abuse of all illegal substances and abuse of legal substances like alcohol and prescription medications.
There are psychological, biological, and social health outcomes.
And there are potent differences in how substances affect women compared to men.
Women who abuse substances are more likely to have a partner that also engages in substance abuse.

Question 2

Legal drugs

Answer 2

Prescription medicines

Question 3

Alcohol

Answer 3

The substance that kills more people globally/prevalent form of substance abuse/addiction is ALCOHOL.

Question 4

Women’s Alcohol Metabolism

Answer 4

Women metabolize much LESS alcohol in their stomachs than men –> alcohol enters the bloodstream more quickly as ethanol –> intoxicated faster/easier/with less consumption.
Women generally have lower body mass and body water content –> exacerbates the rate of alcohol intoxication

Question 5

Impacts of Alcohol on Women

Answer 5

Alcohol dependence is perceived to be seen more in women than men. Alcohol addicted women develop
- Liver cirrhosis and fatty liver (alcohol related diseases) more quickly than men
- Cognitive complications
- Die due to liver disease, in an accident caused by alcohol, to be arrested from driving while intoxicated
Therefore, rates of alcohol use and binge drinking is rising in women, rush to hospital emergency rooms

Question 6

Specific subpopulations of dramatic changes in alcohol consumption

Answer 6

Young women & older women (over the age of 60) –> rise in them binge drinking
- More common in white women and Latinas

Question 7

Opioid use and addiction

Answer 7

Women have more acute and chronic pain –> women are prescribed these painkillers more than men. Women also tend to be overprescribed psychoactive drugs (antidepressants/anti anxiety drugs) than men

Question 8

Rise of single parent household

Answer 8

Big responsibility for women and more dependence on medications. Some describe feeling overwhelmed by these responsibilities (not only as the primary caretaker but also the breadwinner.
Thus, they perceive medications as to numb the pain and to make them more productive

Question 9

Harm Reduction Approach

Answer 9

A type of public health approach in which the goal is moderation or the reduction of substance use. It decriminalizes drugs. This approach intervenes by focusing on the negative impact rather than elimination/abstinence
(e.g., give out clean needles)

Question 10

Needle exchange programs

Answer 10

A form of harm reduction - Clean, free and new needles prevent the spread of diseases among people who suffer from substance abuse.

Question 11

“Traditional” treatment programs

Answer 11

Treatment programs that work off of data collected from male subjects (male-oriented treatment programs), tend to focus solely on addiction and not contextual factors or problems unique to women. Alcoholics Anonymous is an example of a traditional treatment program.
Research from the Cochrane Review on the success of AA programs failed to account gender

Question 12

How exactly do “traditional” treatment programs fail to cater to women/gender?

Answer 12

This kind of program is where
- women are expected to blame themselves, follow instructions, and fall in line (demonstrative of white supremacy)
- individualistic (not focusing on the familiarity aspect of women –> caretaking).
- Disregard sexual abuse and sexual violence that can be ongoing and cooccurring.
- methods tend to be very aggressive, confrontational, designed to break down alcoholic’s denial

They also fail to serve the needs of women since they do not account the needs of women (fail to provide proper childcare services, etc)

Question 13

Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders

Answer 13

Disorders that coexist with addiction: ex. Depression.
A lot of women who have substance abuse disorders have a coexisting psychiatric disorder.

Question 14

Fragmentation

Answer 14

A cycle in which a service fails to provide the person the resource they need, due to their failure to understand the comorbidity of issues related to substane abuse.
Ex). A facility that helps women dealing with ongoing violence/history of violence/assault (shelters, safehouses, etc) will not accept women with substance abuse problems

Question 15

War on Drugs

Answer 15

The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the US government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States. Has unfortunately led to the imprisonment of people suffering from addiction.

Question 16

Women Centered Approach

Answer 16

All female groups, focus on women-specific issues, more successful than traditional programs

Question 17

Genesis Project

Answer 17

Looks at substance abuse prevention and intervention for women across the world. They report that heavier alcohol use is consistently associated with greater likelihood of partner violence.
Women who substance abusers have issues with ongoing violence. And many women already in treatment are experiencing violence from their partners.