About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about sex and gender differences in drug misuse, focusing in particular on: (i) the tendency for boys and men to abuse drugs more so than girls and women; (ii) a greater likelihood of fatal overdose in girls and women than in boys and men; (iii) the increased likelihood that boys and men will take drugs as a result of peer pressure; (iv) a tendency for men to experience greater withdrawal symptoms from alcohol abstinence than women; (v) the tendency for women to be more likely to transition from substance abuse to substance dependency than men; (vi) the higher prevalence of self-medication using illicit substances by women than by men, which could be linked to their suffering being more likely to be dismissed by medical professionals; (vii) some other key differences between the experiences of men and women with regard to drug abuse and dependency; (viii) a very basic explanation for some of these differences being the tendency for men to have a greater body mass than women, meaning that a drug is more dispersed when absorbed; (ix) the role of oestrogen in increasing biological women’s sensitivity to stimulation; (x) the role of testosterone is ‘status seeking’, linking to intensity of drug consumption and responses to peer pressure; (xi) the historical tendency for women to be prescribed opiates more often than men, in part to alleviate menstruation-related discomfort, leading to a higher addiction prevalence; (xii) the historic view that only women could become mentally ill, derived from the diagnosis of ‘hysteria’ which could only be associated with women; (xiii) the lobotomy, used to treat mental illness, which was much more commonly performed on women; (xiv) the masculine cultural traits which link men to drug overconsumption and self-abuse.

About the lecturer

Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist, author and honorary research associate in the Centre for Medical Education at Cardiff University. Dr Burnett’s research interests are in neuroscience, science communication and psychology. Some of Dr Burnett’s recent books include Psycho-Logical (2019) and Why Your Parents Are Driving You Up The Wall And What To Do About It (2019).