The tragic death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, apparently from a heroin overdose and the ongoing antics of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford raise real questions about drug addiction and the male brain. Yes, there have been countless female celebrities with addiction problems, even fatal ones. Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse come to mind. But research shows that drug addiction is different for men in some important ways.
Let’s start with smoking. A study published in 2012 reported startling biological changes in the brains of male smokers. Using brain imaging, Dr. Kelly Cosgrove and colleagues at Yale University School of Medicine found that newly abstinent male smokers had more nicotine receptors than male non-smokers. A similar effect was not found in females. The researchers go on to suggest that male addiction to smoking is closely tied to the physical effect of the nicotine, while women “smoke more for affect and stress regulation.” This would help to explain why nicotine replacement therapy is more effective for males, while females tend to benefit from devices that mimic the social aspects of smoking such as nicotine-free inhalers.
Why should men and women experience addiction differently? Part of the answer may lie in our sex hormones. The Yale researchers noted that “higher progesterone levels were associated with worse self-reported depression, nicotine withdrawal, and craving to smoke a cigarette to relieve withdrawal.”
Another study, from the University of Virginia, showed the perceived effects of cocaine varied across a woman’s menstrual cycle, with the “greatest subjective effects observed when estrogen levels are high and relatively unopposed by progesterone.” Men don’t have menstrual cycles, but there is definitely some interplay between our hormones and drug addiction.
For the full article in the Calgary Herald by Tom Keenan, click here.
Photograph by Andrew Burton, Getty Images