[Women and cross-dependence].
Most scientific researches on drug abuse and dependence suffer from "gender bias" being male dominated with the assumption that men are the main users of drugs. In reality, women use mind-altering drugs in the same way as men. This paper focus on alcohol, drugs use/abuse and dependence amongst females on public treatment Services, on recreational settings as well as at school. Problem related to alcohol and cocaine are discussed the most. Findings on aggressive behavior, psychological aspects, younger age of abuse, traumatic events, patterns of use, subset of gender specific symptoms manifestation (depression, mood swings, paranoia) the vicious circle of anxiety and alcoholism, the cross-dependence on legal and illegal drugs, comorbidity between drug abuse and psychiatric syndromes are treated in relation to academic literature.
Macchia
Teodora
T
Laboratorio di Biochimica Clinica, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome. macchia@iss.it
D000374:Aggression; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016387:Women's Health; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data