Patterns of drug abuse among women.

Researchers have failed to define patterns of drug abuse among women. This study focuses on women's primary patterns of abuse for selected drugs at admission in relation to age at first use, education, and race. A sample of 14,428 women clients were selected. Several findings show heroin to be most abused in the 19 to 20 age at first use category, marijuana to be second most abused, sedatives to be second most abused among women whose age at first use was 26, and women with high school educations to be more frequent abusers of heroin than women with less than 9-years education.