Historically, women have been excluded from scientific research because they were of childbearing age; because there was a general consensus that women were less affected by a number of medical conditions and thus, could be treated similarly to men; and because it was thought that the inclusion of women in scientific research added a layer of complexity and thus, constituted additional costs to research (Howard, Ehrlich, Gamlen, & Oram, 2017; Mazure & Jones, 2015). While these misperceptions are changing, as highlighted by Table 1 and throughout this review, there are often insufficient numbers of women included in research on the neuroimaging of AUD to study SG differences. Even when sufficient numbers of women are included, as in the case of fMRI research, results are still not analyzed by sex. With the NIH requirement to include women in clinical research and recent added requirements for including SABV in all grant applications (Janine A Clayton & Collins, 2014; National Institutes of Health, 2019), we are hopeful that our understanding of SG differences in the neural mechanisms underlying AUD will continue to improve in order to guide future research, clinical practice, and pharmacotherapeutic treatments for AUD.
