Male-Female Differences in Transitions from First Drug Opportunity to First Use: Searching for Subgroup Variation by Age, Race, Region, and Urban Status

Abstract

Recent studies in the United States suggest that male-female differences in the prevalence of drug use may result from sex differences in opportunities to use drugs rather than from differences in the likelihood of making a transition into drug use once an opportunity has occurred. That is, men have more opportunities to try drugs, but women appear to be just as likely as men to initiate drug use when given the opportunity to do so. This paper examines whether this general observation holds for subgroups defined by age or birth cohort, race/ethnicity, geographic region, and urban status. We analyzed data from the 1991, 1992, and 1993 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse. We found general consistency across the subgroups studied. Males were more likely than females to have opportunities to use drugs, but the sexes were equally likely to make a transition into drug use once an opportunity had occurred to try a drug. The implications of this evidence are discussed in relation to the epidemiology and prevention of drug use and with respect to future research on sex and gender differences in drug involvement. 797

Sex differences in drug abuse

“…Nevertheless, the number of women using and abusing prescription and illegal drugs is on the rise. Adult men are 2 to 3 times more likely than women to have a drug abuse/dependence disorder, but this current gender difference may reflect differences in opportunity, rather than vulnerability to drug use [125,126]. If one looks at rate of escalation of drug use, however, women tend to increase their rate of consumption of alcohol, marijuana, opioids and cocaine more rapidly than do men [19,54,82,86,99].…”

“…Sex differences are present for all of the phases of drug abuse, which includes initiation, then escalation of use and the progression to addiction, with subsequent withdrawal followed by relapse [27,82,125,126]. While there are some differences among specific classes of abused drugs, the general pattern of sex differences is the same for all drugs of abuse.…”

Progestins influence motivation, reward, conditioning, stress, and/or response to drugs of abuse

“…Female rats have greater locomotor and stereotypic behaviors than do male rats after acute and chronic cocaine administration (Festa et al, 2003(Festa et al, , 2004Van Etten and Anthony, 2001). Female rats require lower dosages of cocaine to achieve responses similar to those of male rats, and their behavioral responses persist longer than do male responses (Festa et al, 2004).…”

Medico-legal issues of body packing: what do clinicians need to know?

“…90 Men are considered to have more opportunities than women to use drugs, but both genders are equally likely to use drugs once an opportunity to do so occurs. 91,92 Gender divide in drug use is narrowing among the younger generation…”

“…Many households experienced a pronounced increase in income-earning opportunities; the economic growth is reflected in the expanding footprint of the markets in the district centres of Kama and Surkhrud, as well as in the district of Jani Khel. 91 Although the improvement in Nangarhar could be observed over a number of years, other more recent developments related to governance issues now threaten to undo the progress achieved in that province. 92 The region of San Martín in Peru is another example of positive economic development occurring in parallel with efforts to reduce illicit drug supply in rural communities affected by illicit cultivation.…”