Trends in Access to Substance Abuse Treatment for Women and Men: 1995-2005

Background and purpose: Evidence documents significant gender disparities in access to substance abuse treatment services: 6.2% of women who need treatment for alcohol receive it compared to 8.3% of men;15% of women who need treatment for illicit drugs receive it, compared to 19% for men (NSDUH, 2007). The proposed research will test gender differences and examine factors related to admission to substance abuse treatment for six substances: alcohol, marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines and other opioids (prescription pain relievers).

Methods: Data from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) will be used to examine admission rates for men and women across age groups for the years 1995, 2000, 2005. Age-period-cohort modeling is used to test the hypotheses that (a) treatment admission increases over time for women and decreases or remains the same for men, and (b) gender differences are greater for older cohorts than younger cohorts of women than cohorts of men.

Results: Examining rates of treatment admission for the years, 1995, 2000, 2005 indicates significant gender differences across all age groups and drugs of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine, but minimal gender differences for drugs of methamphetamines and other opiates. Gender differences are greater for older cohorts than younger cohorts for alcohol and cocaine, but they are greater for younger cohorts than older cohorts for marijuana.

Conclusions and implications: Trend analyses of gender differences in substance abuse treatment admissions document variations in disparities in access over time and over substance. The gender gap in admissions may be closing for younger cohorts of women and men and for users of methamphetamines and pain relievers. Strategies for reducing the gender gap in access across all age groups and drugs of abuse will be explore.

Funding: The research was supported by a grant (R01-DA-018741) from the National Institute of Drug Abuse.