This comparison suggests two tentative conclusions regarding gender and alcoholic subtypes. First, it appears that the more severe form of alcoholism, type B, is not male limited, in contrast to Cloninger’s type II alcoholism. Although a smaller proportion of the women fell into this category, those who did may be comparable to the men in terms of a variety of risk and severity factors. Second, those men and women categorized as type A alcoholics appeared to differ in important ways, as previously described. Most notably, women in this group exhibited higher levels of affective disturbance (e.g., depression and anxiety); reported more severe medical and social consequences of their alcohol use; and appeared to self-medicate, using tranquilizers as well as alcohol (table 1).
