Physiological Effects of Alcohol: Women

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

(SAMHSA) and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), women experience negative physical consequences and complications from alcohol sooner and at lower levels of consumption than men. Evidence suggests that women progress significantly faster in developing dependence (“telescoping”), organ damage, and diseases with much lower levels of alcohol consumption. Women are more likely to die many years earlier from alcohol abuse and dependence. Specific long-term consequences for women include:

 Liver and Other Gastrointestinal Disorders

o Fatty Liver

o Alcohol Hepatitis

o Cirrhosis

o Liver Cancer

o Ulcers/Gastritis

o Pancreatitis

o Diabetes

 Cardiac-Related Conditions

o High Blood Pressure (hypertension)

o Cardiomyopathy o Stroke

o Arrhythmia

 Nutritional Deficiencies

o Malnutrition

o Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies

 Reproductive Consequences

o Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

o Low Birth Weight

o Miscarriage

o Painful/Irregular Menstruation

o Underproduction of Hormones

 Breast and Other Cancers

o Breast Cancer

o Throat and Mouth Cancer

o Stomach and Colon Cancer

o Other Cancers

o Osteoporosis

 Cognitive and Other Neurological Effects o Brain Shrinkage

o Peripheral Neuritis/Neuropathy

o Dementia

o Korsakoffs/Wernickes

o Cerebellar Degeneration

 Infections: Greater Susceptibility and Progression

o HIV/AIDS

o Tuberculosis

o Pneumonia

For further information on women-specific physiological effects, please see “Substance

Abuse Treatment: Addressing the Specific Needs of Women. A Treatment Improvement

Protocol TIP 51.” from SAMHSA/CSAT.

For further information regarding related topics, please contact Karen Kuehn Howell,

Ph.D., at the Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development Project, Emory University

School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 1256 Briarcliff Road,

N.E.,309W, Atlanta, Georgia, 30306. You can also phone us at 404-712-9829 or visit our website at http://www.emory.edu/MSACD.

The Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development Project is funded in part by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD).