Consumption of Alcohol Severely Affects Women More than Men

Filed in archive Cases , Studies on May 7, 2007

Alcohol consumption is more detrimental to women than it is to men.

Such were the findings of a new study by researchers at RTI International, Pavlov Medical University, Leningrad Regional Center of Addictions, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

According to the said study, women become more alcohol dependent more quickly. Also, it was also found that alcohol more severely impairs women's cognitive functioning including perceptual and visual planning and processing, working memory and motor control.

Pretty much reminds me of a line from a movie: "God gave us alcohol as a social Lubricant: makes men brave, makes women loose." ;-)

According to Barbara Flannery, Ph.D., research psychologist at RTI:

"Our studied showed that female alcoholics experience a greater decrement in cognitive and motor functions and sustain an accelerated decline in processing speed than males. Our findings confirm and extend prior research that alcohol exerts more profound adverse effect more quickly on women compared to men."

Maybe this also means that men can handle alcoholism better than men?

This particularly study was conducted from 2003 to 2005 in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Pavlov State Medical University and the Leningrad Regional Center of Addictions, among Russian patients.

Findings have been published in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Find more details from the full report.