Addiction: Sex and gender evidence in alcohol, tobacco use and nicotine addiction, and opioid use disorders

Behavioral health conditions such as addiction are chronic diseases that require long-term treatment. In 2018, 20.3 million people had a substance use disorder in the United States. Additionally, 58.8 million people were current tobacco users, 67.1 million binge drank, and 16.6 million drank alcohol heavily. Important sex and gender differences exist in addiction from epidemiology to efficacy of treatment approaches. Generally, substance use disorders are more common among men than women, although women typically progress more quickly from substance use to addiction than men and present to treatment with more severe disease status and more medical and psychosocial co-morbidities. Although women typically face more barriers to treatment than men, their treatment outcomes are similar. A gender lens should be incorporated into both the clinical care of people with substance use disorder and public health approaches to addiction and recovery.