Gender differences in substance use disorders: Implications for treatment

New data from a community survey of women (18-70 years) and substance use patterns and potential correlates in the U.S. will be presented. There will then be presentation of the evidence for the telescoping course of alcohol use disorders in females and a brief review of the physiology contributing to this illness trajectory

There will be a brief overview of the risks for substance use disorders in women and the role of gender-specific therapies in treating women with substance use disorders. The presentation will then present the indications and evidence for the Women’s Recovery Group (WRG), an evidence-based manualized gender-specific group therapy for women with substance use disorders that is now disseminated into clinical practice. It will then present new research examining digital adaptations of the WRG.

 

Shelly F. Greenfield, MD, MPH is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Kristine M. Trustey Endowed Chair of Psychiatry at McLean Hospital where she also serves as the Chief Academic Officer. She is the Chief of the Division of Women's Mental Health and the Director of Clinical and Health Services Research and Education in the Alcohol, Drug and Addiction Treatment Program at McLean Hospital. She is the Mary Beth and Chris Gordon Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute (2024-2025) where she is studying gender differences in substance use disorders.

 

Dr. Greenfield is an addiction psychiatrist, clinician and researcher. She has served as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on federally funded research focusing on treatment for substance use disorders, gender differences in substance disorders, and health services for substance disorders. She received a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded career award in substance use disorder patient oriented research (2005-2016). Funded by grants from NIH/NIDA, she developed and tested a new manual-based group therapy for women with substance use disorders, the Women’s Recovery Group (WRG). The WRG is an evidence-based treatment and the manual for dissemination was published in 2016, Treating Women with Substance Use Disorders: The Women’s Recovery Group Manual. She is Past President of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and past chair of the American Psychiatric Association's Council on Addiction Psychiatry. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry for 16 years (2002-2018).

 

Dr. Greenfield was a member of the Advisory Committee on Services for Women for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2011-2017) and a member of the NIH/NIDA National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (2021-2024). She has been elected to the American College of Psychiatrists and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She received the R. Brinkley Smithers Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Society of Addiction Medicine, Harvard Medical School’s A. Clifford Barger Award for Excellence in Mentoring, the Stuart A. Hauser Award for Mentoring from the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry, and the 2022 Dean’s Award for Community Service for the Mass General Brigham/McLean Hospital Outreach Program with Indian Health Service for service to the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico.