ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603150002
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Nearly four million American women under the age of 30 have alcohol problems, and they are less likely than their male counterparts to seek treatment, according to a University of Miami alcohol researcher, the lead author of a study published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Female problem drinkers are prone to menstrual and fertility problems, and their risky behavior while intoxicated can lead to HIV infection from unsafe sex or death or injury from driving under the influence, said Barbara Mason, who heads the Division of Substance Abuse at the UM School of Medicine.
There is also a stronger link between depression and problem drinking in women than in men, she said.
``Depressed alcoholic women are more likely to commit suicide than depressed alcoholic men,'' said Mason, who advocates treating depression along with the alcohol problem.
The statistics were compiled from a nationwide survey that began in 1992, sponsored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The survey used face-to-face interviews with 42,862 Americans chosen to assure that all segments of the U.S. population - by age, sex and ethnicity - were represented.
Mason said it appears that women are gaining on men in abuse of alcohol or alcohol dependence, but further study is needed to prove there is a trend.
``The male-to-female ratio for alcoholism had been 3 to 1, but the survey indicates the gender gap may be closing. It's more like 2 to 1 now,'' Mason said.
Ten percent of young adult women were identified by the survey as having alcohol problems - either abuse or alcohol dependence as defined in the DSM-IV, the American Psychiatric Association's manual of mental disorders, Mason said.
Alcohol abuse is defined in the manual by absences from school or work, job performance problems, neglect of child-care or household responsibilities because of drinking or the after-effects of drinking, or using alcohol in physically hazardous circumstances such as driving a vehicle.
Alcohol dependence is characterized by the development of withdrawal symptoms within 12 hours of ceasing alcohol intake, or the compulsive use of alcohol - devoting substantial periods of time to obtaining and consuming alcohol.
``Women in the younger age groups are particularly influenced by their peers and drinking seems to be a part of socializing for many people in that age group,'' Mason said. Having a spouse or live-in boyfriend who is a heavy drinker increases the risk that a woman will also abuse alcohol, she said.
``I think young people tend to use alcohol in a more dangerous way, because they think they're immortal,'' she said.
Women may avoid seeking treatment because of fear they may lose dependent children if the problem is revealed, or because they can not arrange care for their children while in treatment, she said.
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