Women and Addiction - Ait-Daoud, N. et al.

Question 1

Substance abuse

Answer 1

Abuse of or dependence on alcohol or an illicit drug

Question 2

Opioid Epidemic

Answer 2

A rise in both prescription and nonprescription opioid use

Question 3

Doctor shopping

Answer 3

A patient obtaining controlled substances from multiple healthcare practitioners without the prescribers’ knowledge of the other prescriptions.
This ties in the fact that women are more likely to have chronic pain, leading to the need to obtain more painkillers, leading to a misuse or abuse of them.

Question 4

AOD

Answer 4

Alcohol or drug use

Question 5

What explains the gender difference in how one reacts to drugs or recovers?

Answer 5

There are biological/sex differences (women have unique characteristics related to hormones, fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menopause) and socially/culturally defined roles or norms that prevent women from feeling comfortable in admitting that they need help (pregnant women with an addiction feel hesitant to seek help as they perceive that they will encounter legal or social consequences)

Question 6

What does the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration say when evaluating women using alcohol or illicit drugs?

Answer 6

Clinicians must consier trauma history, pregnancy, and resulting intrauterine effects of AOD use and identify barriers to accessing health care. Specific characteristics in women may prevent them from seeking treatment, including their complex roles of mother, partner, and caregiver, and fear of losing custody of children who are under their care if the AOD problem is admitted.

Question 7

Summary

Answer 7

For drug use, women begin using drugs at lower doses than men, but drug use escalates more rapidly to addiction, and women face a greater risk for negative health consequences and relapse after abstinence (possibly in response to negative emotions or interpersonal problems).
For alcohol, women are more vulnerable than men to the effects of alcohol.

Question 8

What should us as a society do to help these women (as outlined in the summary?)

Answer 8

• Adjust treatment programs to tailor to the needs of women
• Women should seek help in office-based settings, away from family, preferably in primary, prenatal care, or mental health clinics
• Greater awareness by the health care community of the specific issues that women with AOD use disorders face is needed to help reduce the disparities in treatment availability and acceptability across genders.