Womens Group Treatment For Substance Use Disorder PDF Download

"Women with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and other Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) have different etiology, mortality, relapse antecedents, clinical presentation, and course of the disorders than men with AUD/SUD (see Epstein & Menges, 2013; Epstein et al., 2018 ). For instance, relative to men, women report higher comorbidity of mood, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, eating, and personality disorders (Rosenthal, 2013); and women are likely to drink alone, in secrecy, daily, in response to relationship difficulties (Zweig, McCrady, & Epstein, 2009) and in response to negative emotional triggers (Abulseoud et al., 2013). Women tend to have social networks that include family members and romantic partners with SUD (Leonard & Homish, 2008) who do not support recovery (McCrady, 2004). Many relapse antecedents are more prevalent in women than men, including being alone, negative affect, interpersonal problems and relationship distress (Walitzer & Dearing, 2006). Mediators of treatment on AUD outcomes also may differ by gender; mechanisms of change generally relevant to women likely include alleviation of negative affect, enhanced coping skills and self-care, improved interpersonal functioning (Velasquez & Stotts, 2003), and greater emotion regulation (Ashley, Marsden, & Brady, 2003; Timko, Finney, & Moos, 2005). Gender differences in clinical presentation of addiction, relapse antecedents, and mediators suggest that treatments tailored to women's concerns may enhance access to treatment and yield more positive outcomes than gender-neutral programs. Treatment utilization for alcohol use problems is lower for women than for men. Women may be more likely to seek help if single-gender treatment is offered (Cucciare et al., 2013; Lewis et al., 2016), however, female-segregated treatments have been found to be efficacious only if they include female-specific programming (Epstein & Menges, 2013; Holzhauer, Cucciare & Epstein, 2020)"--