Women and Substance Abuse

Abstract

The consideration of gender differences in substance use and abuse, addiction, and treatment outcomes has grown exponentially in the scientific literature since the release of the National Institutes of Health Policy and Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research in 1994.1 As a result, researchers have uncovered a number of critical differences between men and women in what was once predominantly believed to be a “male issue,” 2 including differences related to treatment and outcomes.