Women drug abuse in Europe : Gender identity - Irefrea

CHAPTER 3GENDER IDENTITY AND DRUG ADDICTION IN EUROPE: DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THEBIBLIOGRAPHY 1The comparative study on the subject of gender identity and drug addiction isdefined in this first phase according to an essentially bibliographical and cognitivepoint of view. It has enabled certain preliminary type considerations that highlight theinterest from a point of view of specificity and the importance of relapses from thepoint of view of treatment with reference to the European context in which it wascarried out (Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal).The first evident observation is that, both from a scientific and from an operativeprofessional point of view, the problem of drug addiction was confronted in Europefrom an almost exclusively masculine point of view. This was founded on thesupposition that the knowledge and relative data on drug-addicted men can begeneralised and no distinction according to gender is necessary.In Europe the evolution of literature has revealed itself to be much slower and it isstill actually in a preliminary stage unlike in the USA where there has been a growingawareness since the 1980’s that female drug addiction should be regarded as a specificand autonomous theme making up a conceptual plan (Blume, 1990; Nelson-Zlupko,1996).The bibliographic research has in fact highlighted the lack of or limited supply ofthese cognitive elements regarding this problem even though it can also represent animportant preliminary introduction and starting point for more detailed reflections andfor the definition of future lines of research.In particular, not only should the general lack of scientific contributions on femaledrug addiction be noted, but also the difficulty due to factors of methodological orderof analysis and comparison of the other data and contributions determined by theresearchers of the countries involved.1The overall analysis of the European literature was based on the final reports of the individual countriesparticipating in the research, in particular: P. Stocco, L. De Fazio, Italy; H. Broemer (Germany); A. Houel,F. Venner (France); J.J. Llopis Llacer (Spain).45