Alcohol dependence disorder has been widely described. However, differences due to gender remain unknown.

To compare clinical gender differences in an alcohol dependent outpatient sample.

Alcohol dependent outpatients from the centre for addiction treatment of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital following treatment during 2005 to 2011 were evaluated. We included patients with an alcohol dependence following DSM-IV criteria. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were collected. Simple descriptive statistics were carried out for demographic and clinical data. Bivariate analysis was made to compare the main variables by sex using SPSSvs15.0.

149 patients were included, 83.2% were men. No gender differences were found in the mean age of the sample. Time of first alcohol use to regular consumption was significantly shorter in men (7.9 ± 6.9 year vs 13.95 ± 8.9 years). Significantly more women (68%) compared with men (44.4%) had comorbid psychiatric disorders. 52% of women and 28.2% of men had depressive symptoms. No gender differences were observed for psychotic, anxiety neither personality disorders. Comorbidity with nicotine dependence was high in men and in women (75.4% vs 73.9%). Significantly more women had sedatives dependence (16% vs 5.3%) and opiate dependence (8.3% vs 3.5%) without observing gender differences in the other drugs. the 71.4% of women consume alone compared with the 38.7% of men.

Alcoholic women tend to consume alone. They have more comorbid mental disorders, being depression the most prevalent. Besides alcohol dependence, women also had more sedatives and opiate dependence than men.