From College Students to Older Adults, Alcohol Abuse Affecting Greater Numbers of Women

By Hugh C. McBride

For years, the terms "alcohol abuse" and "alcoholism" were likely to generate images of drunken fraternity members, hard-charging businessmen negotiating over three-martini lunches and washed up drunkards such as The Andy Griffith Show's famous town drunk, Otis.

In recent decades, though, public perceptions of the faces of alcohol abuse have been expanded to include hard-partying female students, stressed young mothers and depressed older women.

In other words, more and more members of the general public are beginning to realize what substance abuse professionals have long known: As with most diseases and disorders, alcohol abuse and alcoholism are not constrained by sex or gender.

The Effects of Alcohol on Women

Clearly, alcohol abuse isn't a healthy pursuit for individuals of any age, gender or socioeconomic status. But as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) reports on its College Drinking Prevention website, women are at increased risk for certain types of alcohol-related damage:

• Women become more impaired than men do after drinking the same amount of alcohol, even when differences in body weight are taken into account. This is because women's bodies have less water than men's bodies.
• Because alcohol mixes with body water, a given amount of alcohol becomes more highly concentrated in a woman's body than in a man's. In other words, it would be like dropping the same amount of alcohol into a much smaller pail of water. That is why the recommended drinking limit for women is lower than for men.
• In addition, chronic alcohol abuse takes a heavier physical toll on women than on men. Alcohol dependence and related medical problems, such as brain, heart, and liver damage, progress more rapidly in women than in men.

In a publication titled Alcohol: A Women's Health Issue, the NIAAA provides a more extensive look at the many unique dangers faced by women who abuse alcohol:

• By reducing their situational awareness and ability to fight back or escape, heavy drinking increases a woman’s risk of becoming a victim of violence and sexual assault.
• Women are more likely than men to develop alcoholic hepatitis (liver inflammation) and to die from cirrhosis.
• Research suggests that women are more vulnerable than men are to alcohol-induced brain damage.
• Many studies report that heavy drinking increases the risk of breast cancer. Alcohol also is linked to cancers of the digestive track and of the head and neck (the risk is especially high in smokers who also drink heavily).
• Chronic heavy drinking is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease. Among heavy drinkers, women are more susceptible to alcohol-related heart disease, even though women drink less alcohol over a lifetime than men.

Alcohol Abuse Among Female College Students

In March 2007, the nonprofit National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) released a report on the prevalence of binge drinking and prescription painkiller abuse on college campuses.

Though the report indicated that both male and female students were participating in these unhealthy behaviors, researchers noted dramatic increases in the prevalence of alcohol abuse among college women:

• Frequent binge drinking among all college students increased by 16 percent between 1993 and 2005.
• Among female students, the binge drinking rate increased by 22 percent (almost double the increase among male students).
• Thirty-seven percent of female college students reported having consumed alcohol on at least 10 occasions in the previous 30 days. 

The potentially devastating effects of alcohol abuse by female college students are also emphasized in information provided by the Princeton University Women's Center:

• Sixty percent of college women who developed a sexually transmitted disease (such as genital herpes or AIDS) were under the influence of alcohol at the time they had intercourse. (Source: National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information)
• Ten percent of Princeton students reported being taken advantage of sexually while they were under the influence of alcohol. (Source: 1998 Core Alcohol and Drug Survey/Princeton University Health Services)
• National information from college campuses estimates that up to 90 percent of sexual assaults involve the use of alcohol either by the perpetrator, the victim or both. (Source: (Duke University Healthy Devil website)

After Graduation, the Problem Continues

College has traditionally been a time of increased experimentation with alcohol and other drugs, but reports indicate that young women aren't abandoning alcohol when they graduate. For example, the following appeared in a Dec. 10, 2001, article in the British newspaper The Independent that was headlined "Alcohol epidemic is killing young career women."

Soaring levels of alcohol abuse among British women mean that they are more likely to die from cirrhosis of the liver than cervical cancer, the Government's chief medical officer warns today. ...
There has been a sharp increase in the number of women exceeding the maximum recommended levels of consumption of 14 drinks a week, from 10 percent in 1986 to 14 percent in 1996. A recent report predicted female alcohol consumption would rise by 30 percent between 1994 and 2004.
Department of Health studies show the proportion of heavy female drinkers is much higher in younger age groups. Researchers say they are seeing young women, some in their twenties, suffering from liver damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption.

Alcohol Abuse in Old Age

Neither statistics nor anecdotal reports indicate that the picture is any brighter when it comes to alcohol abuse among older women.

Women who have abused alcohol for years are unlikely to suddenly stop once they reach a certain age, though the effects of age and long-term exposure to alcohol may have an increasingly harsh impact on their bodies. Also, older women who are struggling with depression, anxiety and other emotional issues may turn to alcohol in an attempt to "self-medicate" or numb themselves to their psychological pain.

An article on the athealth.com mental health website cites just a few of the many ways in which alcohol abuse can impact older women:

• Age-related decreases in lean body mass versus total volume of fat, and the resultant decreases in total body mass, increase the total distribution of alcohol and other mood–altering chemicals in the body.
• Older women are more likely than older men to receive prescriptions for benzodiazepines, and are therefore more likely to be faced with problems related to the interaction of these medications with alcohol.
• Older women with a history of regular alcohol use are 2.2 times more likely to have impaired activities of daily living compared with those with no history of regular alcohol use. Alcohol use is more strongly correlated with impairment than are smoking, age, use of anti-anxiety medication or stroke.
• Because older women generally drink less than older men and are more likely to abstain from alcohol, health care providers may be less likely to recognize at-risk drinking and alcohol problems in this population.

Getting Help

Regardless of a person's age or gender, effective professional treatment for alcoholism or alcohol dependence can lead to long-term recovery. Depending upon a number of factors, including the degree to which they were dependent upon alcohol and the length of time they abused the drug, women with histories of alcohol problems may find the help they need via outpatient therapy, hospitalization, residential recovery or participation in a 12-step support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

For some women, the ideal treatment option is a stay in a residential treatment program for women. At an alcohol rehab program for women such as The Rose of Newport Beach, clients have the opportunity to begin their healing in a nurturing environment staffed by professionals who are experts in identifying and addressing the specific needs of women in recovery.

At The Rose, women who have been abusing alcohol or other drugs can receive treatment for their substance abuse while also accessing help for issues related to trauma, grief, anxiety, poor self-esteem, depression, co-dependency and any other related conditions that may have contributed to or been exacerbated by their addictions.

Regardless of where they choose to receive treatment, women of any age who are struggling with issues related to alcohol abuse need to know that help is available, recovery is possible and a healthier future is within reach.