Women's Brains Are More Vulnerable to Alcoholism

Sunday, 15 April, 2001, 23:03 GMT 00:03 UK

Why alcohol affects women more

The way the stomach breaks down alcohol could explain why drinking appears to have a more pronounced effect on women.

The toxic effects of alcohol have more impact on women's internal organs, including the liver, heart and brain.

Women are more vulnerable to developing alcohol-related diseases.

For instance, research has shown that the minimal amount of alcohol necessary to produce cirrhosis in the liver in women is two to three times less than in men.

This is due to the fact that when men and women drink the same amount of alcohol, women develop higher blood alcohol levels.

One reason for this is that women have smaller bodies than men.

They also tend to have more fatty tissue. Alcohol cannot be dispersed in fat, and so it is less easily diluted by women than men.

Stomach role

However, scientists have also found that the way the stomach breaks down alcohol before it enters the bloodstream may be a major factor.

Enzymes in the stomach act to break down a proportion of the alcohol taken in by a person.

This system is designed to prevent an excessive rise in blood alcohol levels.

However, these enzymes are less active in women than in men. This means that a greater proportion of alcohol is likely to end up in their bloodstream.

Alcoholism also depresses the activity of the enzymes.

This means that alcoholic woman are unable to break down any alcohol in their stomach.

As a consequence, the level of alcohol in their blood is the same after a drink as it would be if they had been injected intravenously.

The research was carried out by a team from the Alcohol Research and Treatment Center at the Bronx VA Medical Center in New York.

They found that while women responded to beer in the same way as men, they were less able to break down wine or spirits in the stomach.

Professor Steven Schenker, of the University of Texas, said: "Women simply need to be more cautious than males in terms of the amount of drinking that they do."

Andrew Varley, of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: "Traditionally more men tend to be at the extreme end of alcohol addiction, but this reflects drinking patterns, not natural susceptibility.

"Now more women, especially young women, are drinking much more they could be at risk."

The research is published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Thursday February 8 10:31 AM ET

Women's Brains Are More Vulnerable to Alcoholism

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - Women's brains may be particularly vulnerable to the damage caused by alcoholism, new research findings suggest. The study is the first to show distinct gender differences in the brain ``shrinkage'' that strikes alcoholics.

Lead author Dr. Daniel W. Hommer told Reuter Health that the study adds to work showing that women may be more prone to liver and heart damage from alcohol abuse. ``We're showing that the brain is basically the same as these organs,'' he said.

Hommer and his colleagues at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Maryland, report their findings in the February issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

In the study, the investigators obtained brain scans of 79 male and female alcoholics after 3 weeks of sobriety. They then compared the brain volumes with those of 39 healthy study participants. The researchers found that while male alcoholics showed signs of brain ``shrinkage'' compared with healthy men, the difference between alcoholic and healthy women was even greater. The shrinkage probably reflects the killing off of brain cells, according to Hommer.

On average, alcoholic women showed an 11% smaller brain volume than healthy women. Such a difference would be unlikely to make a significant dent in mental capacity, Hommer noted. None of the study participants, who had an average age of 40, showed signs of mental deficits.

However, Hommer pointed out, brain shrinkage increases with age in all people. The early decreases seen in alcoholics may make them more vulnerable to cognitive decline and dementia as they grow older, he explained.

``Alcoholism is linked to dementia,'' Hommer said. And this study, he noted, suggests that alcoholic women may be particularly at risk.

Besides these age-related effects, alcohol-related brain damage may hinder a person's ability to kick the habit, although more research in that area is needed, according to Hommer.

Exactly why heavy drinking would have more profound effects on women is unclear. But, Hommer noted, the same amount of alcohol sends women's blood alcohol levels higher than it does men's, which could explain the different effects on the brain.

As far as how heavy drinking affects non-alcoholics' brains, very little is known, Hommer stated. The patients in this study had averaged about 12 drinks per day. What three, four or five drinks a day might do is unclear, he added.

SOURCE: American Journal of Psychiatry 2001;158:198-204.