WOMEN suffer more brain damage from drinking alcohol than men, research has shown.
A German brain scan study has found evidence that women are especially vulnerable to the harmful effects of heavy drinking.
Alcohol Concern said the findings were alarming, in light of reports of increasing problem drinking among women in the UK.
Scientists in Germany carried out CT scans on the brains of 158 volunteers, including 76 alcoholic men and women and 82 healthy control volunteers.
The alcoholic participants were recruited from a six-week inpatient programme.
The findings also showed that brain damage appeared to develop more quickly in women. The results support previous evidence of genderrelated harmful effects of alcohol, such as mental impairment, heart and skeletal muscle damage, and liver disease.
All are known to occur earlier in women than men even when they are significantly less exposed to alcohol, said Karl Mann, from Heidelberg University, who led the study.
The findings appear in the May issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Srabani Sen, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said: "We know that women metabolise alcohol differently from men and absorb it into their bodies more quickly.
"The findings need to be viewed in light of the fact that women are drinking more and more. In that context, this research is quite worrying."
The proportion of women in the UK drinking more than 14 units of alcohol per week soared from 10-per cent in 1988 to 17-per cent in 2002 - an increase of 70-per cent.
Young women aged 16 to 24 are particularly prone to binge drinking, with 49-per cent cramming their weekly consumption of alcohol into between one and three days.
A total of 17-per cent of adult women reported drinking more than 14 units a week in 2002. Of these, 3-per cent drank at a high-risk level of more than 35 units a week.
In the same year, 22-per cent of British women exceeded the healthy guidance limit of three units, and 10-per cent consumed twice the number of units recommended for safe drinking in one day.
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