Características diferenciales del alcoholismo femenino

Abstract

Proyecto académico sin fines de lucro, desarrollado bajo la iniciativa de acceso abierto Introduction: Alcoholic men and women have differential characteristics. It Introduction: Alcoholic men and women have differential characteristics. It Introduction: has been discussed whether alcoholic women have specific and additional difficulties that require extra study. However, these differences may imply an advantage for some aspects of treatment. Material and method: data from eleven published studies of alcoholic patients are reanalyzed from a gender perspective. Objective: to gain better knowledge of gender differences and their therapeutic implications. Results: women present more suicidal attempts than men, but these attempts are less lethal and have less intentionality. Personality structure is similar in the two sexes, but women have better prognosis, even if they present psychiatric disorders. A notable characteristic of women's prognosis is their better adherence to group therapies. Women diagnosed with severe alcohol dependence who need inpatient treatment for detoxification are usually younger and have higher rates of benzodiazepine abuse and personality disorders than men, but are also more collaborative, and benefit more from therapy. Female benzodiazepine abusers show lower rates of neurocognitive impairment than men. Alcoholic women with severe organic conditions that require inpatient treatment usually have a medical record with more unsuccessful treatment attempts for alcohol dependence than men, and their prognosis is equally unfavourable. Conclusion: alcoholic women may Conclusion: alcoholic women may Conclusion: have psychological mechanisms that facilitate higher abstinence rates and lower mortality rates than men. Future research for improving knowledge of such mechanisms, which are related to emotional factors such as guilt, depression and anxiety, and traditionally considered as problematic, may indicate that they actually increase motivation to change.

Mood Disorders and Severity of Addiction in Alcohol-Dependent Patients Could Be Mediated by Sex Differences

“…This is in line with some authors that have described that women with alcohol dependence are at higher risk for unplanned or planned attempts (49). Therefore, alcohol dependence is an important risk factor for suicidal behavior, and this concern should always be evaluated for an adequate and integral management (35, 36). Differences in relation to the presence of psychotic symptoms between men and women are suggested, which would be consistent with previous studies that evaluate both the presence of alcohol-induced psychotic symptoms and delirium tremens (50, 51), but these results are nonsignificant when Bonferroni correction was performed.…”

“…Besides, depression is frequently associated with suicidal behavior in patients with substance use disorders (34). A recent meta-analysis on more than 400,000 participants reported a strong association between alcohol use disorder and suicidal behavior (35), and if it is analyzed as sex differences, women with alcohol use disorder have more suicidal attempts than men (36).…”

“…These differences are due to several factors, such as social stigma, feelings of shame, denial, fear of losing their children, lack of specialized resources, and lower purchasing power (38, 39) These conditions could have overestimated the higher prevalence among men and would mean that the groups of women studied were more serious because of the fact that they seek treatment in a more advanced stage of the disorder. On the other hand, it is affirmed that women utilize and adhere to specialized resources in alcohol addiction and they achieve better outcomes overall (14, 36, 40). They also react positively to the consumption information (16).…”