Recent developments in alcoholism:gender issues.

Study of women and alcohol may involve a female/male comparison or comparison among subgroups of women. Epidemiological study over the last decades has not supported the hypothesis of convergence of male and female drinking rates, but changes in women's drinking patterns have occurred. Problem drinking and alcohol abuse in men and women are compared: genetics, vulnerability to liver damage, age at onset, spouse's drinking, use of other drugs. A critical issue is the public/private nature of drinking and the consequences which follow from that. Major antecedents to female problem drinking appear to be difficulties in impulse control, depression, and the earlier appearance of other diagnostic syndromes such as eating disorders or phobia. The consequences of problem drinking and alcoholism--interpersonal, legal, occupational, and medical--are discussed. In spite of the increase in gender-related research reports, women remain "the second sex" in theory development and diagnostic definitions.