A European study analyzed gender differences among drug clients: "Men are more numerous than women among treatment clients; but it is not yet clear whether this means that gender differences in the treatment entries correspond to similar gender differences in the needs for treatment," Linda Montanari and colleagues report.
"The available data, when compared with drug-related deaths data, show on the one hand an underrepresentation of women in treatment over the total number of clients, but on the other hand show an overrepresentation of women in treatment to the problematic drug users. This issue needs further investigation.
Different patterns of drug use are also found between man and women: women are more concentrated among hypnotics, sedatives and stimulants (other than cocaine) users whilest men are mainly found among cocaine, cannabis and opiate users. In addition a high presence of women is found among people who are drug injectors or have been injectors in the past...
Women's situations are reported to be rather problematic from data on social context. Women are more often unemployed or economically inactive and they often have to cope with the education and maintenance of children ..."
