Estimates of alcohol use and clinical treatment needs among homosexually active men and women in the US population

Concerns about dysfunctional alcohol use among lesbians and gay men are lon gstanding. The authors examined alcohol use patterns and treatment utilizat ion among adults interviewed in the 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Sexually active respondents were classified into 2 groups: these wit h at least 1 same-gender sexual partner (n = 194) in the year prior to inte rview and those with only opposite-gender sexual partners (n = 9,714). The authors compared these 2 groups separately by gender. For men, normative al cohol use patterns or morbidity did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. However, homosexually active women reported using alcohol more freq uently and in greater amounts and experienced greater alcohol-related morbi dity than exclusively heterosexually active women. Findings suggest higher risk for alcohol-related problems among lesbians as compared with other wom en, perhaps because of a more common pattern of moderate alcohol consumptio n.