Females Are Different: On the Diagnosis of Alcoholism in Women.

Causes and expressions of alcohol abuse in both men and women were examined in this study. Subjects (N=365 women and N=1,657 men), all of whom were first admissions to the Alcoholism Division of the Denver Fort Logan Mental Health Center, described their drinking symptoms and behavior patterns after excessive drinking. Over 60 symptoms were considered and then clustered by factor analytic procedures. Results indicated that: (1) empirically determined clusters in women are similar to clusters determined independently in men as are clusters determined in a single subject sample; (2) only eight distinct categories of drinking symptoms are required for a complete nosology of alcoholism; and (3) in some major respects alcoholism in women is not different from alcoholism in men, except in the expression of much greater anxiety about drinking by alcoholic women. (HLM)