Long day's journey into night: women and prescription drug abuse

Standard explanatory models of addiction are reviewed, including personality theory, locus of control, behaviorist theory, social learning, biochemical and socioeconomic theories, in the context of understanding the female preponderance in prescription drug addiction. Alexander and Hadaway's "adaptive" model of addiction is presented as a more comprehensive model of female prescription drug addiction, encompassing relevant and therapeutically useful aspects of earlier models. It also permits both the individualization of the model to each woman's particular situation, and also the incorporation of common themes stemming from sex-role stereotyping, low status in the society, and the power dynamic of the male physician-female patient interaction.