A. Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP There are several significant differences between men and women concerning alcohol problems.  For instance, the same amount of alcohol (adjusted for weight) will have a bigger effect on a woman (because her stomach does not detoxify alcohol as effectively as a man’s stomach does), women may experience more medical complications (and these complications may be difficult to diagnose and therefore ignored longer), alcohol problems appear to develop (progress) faster in women, the effects of alcohol problems may be greater and more complex for women who have substantial responsibilities both at work and with their families, and the changing roles of women in society may create complications for women receiving adequate support for recovery (e.g., women seek tr...

Using drugs during pregnancy creates multiple risks for the mother as well as the baby. Drug use during pregnancy may lead to miscarriage or severe developmental abnormalities for the child. Yet little research has examined the motivation for drug treatment among pregnant women. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University hypothesized that pregnant drug-using women would be more likely than non-pregnant drug-using women to have higher motivation for addiction treatment (Mitchell, Severtson & Latimer, 2008). The researchers analyzed data collected from 149 drug-using women between 2000 and 2007; 49 of the drug-using women were pregnant and 100 were non-pregnant. The study found that pregnant women were more than four times as likely as non-pregnant women to express greater motivation ...

Overall rates of driving under the influence (DUI) arrests have steadily decreased over the past two decades, but this decrease has not occurred uniformly for all groups of DUI offenders. The proportion of female DUI offenders, for instance, has significantly increased. Further, DUI arrest rates remain higher in rural areas. See also: Why You Should Get a Substance Abuse Assessment for a DUI Case A Center on Drug and Alcohol Research study examined indicators of problem severity for female DUI offenders across graduated levels of rurality and found that the problem severity of DUI offenders is greater in rural areas (Webster et. al., 2009). Practitioners who provide alcohol treatment for rural female DUI offenders may face unique challenges. The researchers examined 19,094 substanc...

Many studies have shown that alcohol and drugs are transferred to breast milk and ultimately to infants. Thus, drugs and alcohol should be avoided while breast feeding. Mothers who struggle with reducing drug and alcohol consumption should consider entering a drug or alcohol rehab. In an alternative to AA, a self-empowering approach can be used to help mothers learn how to abstain from all drugs and alcohol and learn tactics to cope with cravings so mothers can continue to breast feed without possible harm to the infant. Individualized treatment plans can be created for mothers who are breast feeding which can emphasize on specific thoughts, feelings and behaviors that may have been the cause for their drug and alcohol consumption, and learn how to manage them. You might also be intere...