Traumatic Brain Injury: Women's Brains More Damaged By Alcohol Than Men's

The brain damaging effects of alcohol are more severe in women than in men, says a new Russian study. Women alcoholics did worse than their male counterparts on a variety of tests on neurocognitive function. Dr. Barbara Flannery, from RTI International, said that these findings are not good news for alcohol-dependent men because "women are vulnerable to the extent to which they will experience the negative consequences of alcohol abuse and alcoholism more rapidly than men, but men will also experience it -- the same kinds of effects."

Alcohol Damages Women's Brains Faster Than Men's

Other effects of heavy drinking, such as heart and liver damage, have also been found to occur more quickly in women than in men. This study looked at 78 alcoholic men and 24 alcoholic women. Sixty-eight non-alcoholic men and women were used as a control group. All participants in the study took cognitive tests. The alcoholic women performed worse on tests of visual working memory, cognitive flexibility, and spatial planning and problem solving than the alcoholic men.