Teenage Girls and Alcohol
“Drink for drink, alcohol is more dangerous to young women than it is to young men, even after adjusting for differences in height and weight. Alcohol abuse appears to damage girls’ brains differently and more severely than the same degree of alcohol abuse affects same-age boys. These facts are well established among researchers who study alcoholism, but they are not as well known as they ought to be – maybe in part because gender differences are so politically sensitive. For some people, suggesting that alcohol is more toxic to women than to men seems sexist. But we now understand that ignoring gender differences, pretending that girls are no different from boys, puts girls at risk. Nowhere is that clearer than when we are talking about alcohol abuse.” (Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph. D.)