A new journal supplement focuses research attention on women who use substances, their diversity, the contextual factors affecting their lives, their needs, the treatment barriers they face, and next steps with regard to interventions and treatment.
The open access Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation supplement (2012; 3[S1]) was produced by the International Women’s and Children’s Health and Gender Research Group (InWomen), a multidisciplinary research group organized through the NIDA International Virtual Collaboratory (NIVC), an initiative of the NIDA International Program.
The collection of seven papers focus on a range of issues related to women and substance abuse, including:
- Long-term, residential substance abuse treatment for Israeli women
- Methadone treatment for Iranian women
- HIV prevention interventions targeted at women who have been victims of intimate partner violence
- Substance abuse treatment needs of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women
- Impact of criminal justice system involvement on interventions for drug-using women in South Africa
- Maternal Opioid Treatment Human Experimental Research (MOTHER) study comparing the efficacy of buprenorphine versus methadone for detoxification of pregnant women addicted to opioids
- Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: International Study (GENACIS) multisite collaborative study of alcohol abuse.
Authors of the supplement are InWomen members, with several of them having spoken at the 2011 InWomen satellite to the NIDA International Forum and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. InWomen is chaired by NIDA grantee Wendee Wechsberg, Ph.D., RTI International, who also wrote the introduction to the supplement.