Discriminating drug-dependent women from alcoholic women and drug-dependent men

The authors compared 99 drug-dependent women to 162 alcoholic women and 66 drug-dependent men entering an outpatient treatment program. They were assessed by a semistructured inter-view for demography, progression of dependence prior to entering treatment, prior suicidal behavior, and baseline functioning in different areas (alcohol/drug use, occupation, family relationships, and leisure activities). Discriminant analysis techniques were good at predicting group membership for all groups, with an overall correct classification of 69%; though at a lesser degree for the group of drug-dependent women (55%). Among those drug-dependent women misclassified, two-thirds were reclassified into the drug-dependent men group and the remaining third into the alcoholic women group. Taken together, these findings suggest that the drug-dependent women are a distinct group of substance users, who show more heterogeneous characteristics, as well as sharing more features with the drug-dependent men. This should be taken into account when devising treatment strategies for this specific population. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.