Gender Differences in Alcohol Use and Alcohol Dependence or Abuse: 2004, & 2005

The NSDUH Report:  Gender Differences in Alcohol Use and Alcohol Dependence or Abuse - 2004 and 2005

• HTML format (also has the data table used to construct each figure)

• PDF format (recommended for printing)

Highlights:

• SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use & Health defines alcohol dependence or abuse using criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). The criteria includes symptoms such as withdrawal, tolerance, use in dangerous situations, trouble with the law, and interference in major obligations at work, school, or home during the past year. Binge drinking is defined as drinking 5 or more drinks on the same occasion (at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other). Heavy drinking is defined as drinking 5 or more drinks on the same occasion on each of 5 or more days in the past 30 days.

• Based on combined data from SAMHSA's 2004-2005 National Surveys on Drug Use & Health, the rate of past year alcohol dependence or abuse among persons aged 12 or older varied by level of alcohol use: 44.7% of past month heavy drinkers, 18.5% binge drinkers, 3.8% past month non-binge drinkers, and 1.3% of those who did not drink alcohol in the past month met the criteria for alcohol dependence or abuse in the past year.

• Males had higher rates than females for all measures of drinking in the past month: any alcohol use (57.5% vs. 45%), binge drinking (30.8% vs. 15.1%), and heavy alcohol use (10.5% vs. 3.3%).

• Males were twice as likely as females to have met the criteria for alcohol dependence or abuse in the past year (10.5% vs. 5.1%).

  Reports on dependence

  Reports on drugs

  Other topics

  Other OAS publications and services

This Short Report, The NSDUH Report:  Gender Differences in Alcohol Use and Alcohol Dependence or Abuse - 2004 and 2005, is based on SAMHSA's  National Survey on Drug Use and Health conducted by the Office of Applied Studies (OAS) in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is the primary source of information on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse and for selected mental health measures in the general U.S. civilian non institutionalized population, age 12 and older.   SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use & Health also provides estimates for drug use and for selected mental health measures by State.

What's New