Does gender have an influence on whether abuse of a drug causes complications? Because many early studies of substance abuse were only of male subjects, this question long went unanswered. Later researchers, prompted by the concerns raised by the women's movement of the 1970s regarding the lack of attention given to women's health issues, began to study female substance abusers as a separate group as well as to compare them with male substance abusers.

This research has yielded interesting results. First of all, the physical effects of drugs are relatively similar for men and women. For example, mortality (death) rates are about the same for men and women in a sample population of heavy drinkers and heavy smokers. However, men and women have different patterns of alcohol and drug use. In general, women drink less often and in smaller amounts than men...