Discriminating drug-dependent women from alcoholic women and drug-dependent men

• Published in: Addictive behaviors 2003-09, Vol.28 (7), p.1343-1349
• Main Authors: Zilberman, Monica L., Tavares, Hermano, Andrade, Arthur G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alcohol; Alcoholism; Alcoholism - classification; Biological and medical sciences; Brazil - epidemiology; Clinical Protocols; Desintoxication. Drug withdrawal; Drug; Drugs; Female; Gender; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Prejudice; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Sex Factors; Substance abuse treatment; Substance-Related Disorders - classification; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Substance-Related Disorders - therapy; Treatment; Treatment Outcome; Treatments; Women
• ISSN: 0306-4603; 1873-6327
• DOI: 10.1016/S0306-4603(02)00252-6

The authors compared 99 drug-dependent women to 162 alcoholic women and 66 drug-dependent men entering an outpatient treatment program. They were assessed by a semistructured interview for demography, progression of dependence prior to entering treatment, prior suicidal behavior, and baseline functioning in different areas (alcohol/drug use, occupation, family relationships, and leisure activities). Discriminant analysis techniques were good at predicting group membership for all groups, with an overall correct classification of 69%; though at a lesser degree for the group of drug-dependent women (55%). Among those drug-dependent women misclassified, two-thirds were reclassified into the drug-dependent men group and the remaining third into the alcoholic women group. Taken together, these findings suggest that the drug-dependent women are a distinct group of substance users, who show more heterogeneous characteristics, as well as sharing more features with the drug-dependent men. This should be taken into account when devising treatment strategies for this specific population.