ABSTRACT
Women’s drinking is paradoxical. Women of all ages drink less than men and consequently experience fewer alcohol related problems (Plant 1990; Goddard 1991; OPCS 1992; WHO 1992; McDonald 1994). It is very difficult to gain an accurate estimate of the extent of women’s alcoholrelated problems. Although we have some figures (albeit now dated) for numbers in Alcohol Treatment Units, where the ratio of female to male patients declined from 1:3 in 1968 to 1:2 by 1980 (Beory and Merry 1986), these figures are likely to be the tip of the iceberg. For as Thom describes in Chapter 8, women face formidable barriers to treatment. Furthermore, these treatment figures do not take into account women receiving help from other specialist counselling agencies, social services or other parts of the health service, including GPs. Indeed, it is now established that a sizable proportion of patients who are treated by a wide range of medical specialities, in particular emergency services and orthopaedics, are likely to have alcohol problems (Cherpital 1994).
