Benefits of Gender Specific Drug and Alcohol Programs

Women and men are built differently. They have different physical as well as mental needs. In recent years, there has been much focus on the issues surrounding men, women and gender specific research on how drug addiction affects the two as well as the need to create gender-specific programs for drug and alcohol recovery. There has been mounting evidence to indicate that drug abuse may begin and progress differently, have different consequences as well as require different prevention and treatment approaches for men and women. It is for this reason that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) started broadening its scope of gender-related research a little more than five years ago.

Gender Matters in Drug Abuse Research

In an article published on NIDA's website(http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol13N4/DirrepVol13N4.html ), NIDA Director Dr. Alan Leshner had the following to say about gender research and drugs:

Our research on the origins of drug abuse has found gender differences in factors affecting initiation, progression, and maintenance of drug use. For example, basic behavioral and neurochemical research has suggested that women may be more sensitive than men to the rewarding effects of drugs, perhaps due to differences in brain chemistry. Animal studies also have shown that females respond more than males to the stimulating and reinforcing properties of abused drugs. Other studies indicate that the intensity of a drug's effects on women varies during different phases of the menstrual cycle. These physiological differences may help account for data indicating that women may proceed to drug abuse and addiction more rapidly than men do after initial drug use.

Evidence also indicates that psychosocial factors, such as childhood physical and sexual abuse, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, relationships with a significant other, and partner violence play a more important role for women than for men in beginning and continuing drug use. For example, one research study suggests that women's tobacco use is controlled more by social and sensory factors and less by dependence on nicotine itself, compared to men's tobacco use.

The Benefits of Gender Specific Programs

The reasons why men become addicted to drugs and/or alcohol may vary from women. The reasons for drug addiction and drug abuse between the sexes are complex since men deal with problems differently than women do. Additionally, there has been much research to show that women internalize things differently from men not to mention that the emotional factors are different as well. One possible reason for extending drug and alcohol recovery centers to be gender specific is due to the fact that some women may have become involved in drug and alcohol abuse because they were the victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse inflicted upon them by members of the opposite sex. Therefore, their recovery may not be as effective if they were paired in a facility with male residents who were trying to recover for different reasons. At Mark Houston Recovery, we believe that having gender-specific sober living environments is beneficial because it provides quicker assimilation of the tools necessary for permanent recovery.