In this narrative review, we draw from historical and contemporary literature to explore the impact of alcohol consumption on brain and behavior among women. We examine three domains: 1) the impact of alcohol use disorder (AUD) on neurobiobehavioral outcomes, 2) its impact on social cognition/emotion processing, and 3) alcohol’s acute effects in older women. There is compelling evidence of alcohol-related compromise in neuropsychological function, neural activation, and brain structure. Investigations of social cognition and alcohol effects in older women represent emerging areas of study. Initial analyses suggest that women with AUD show significant deficits in emotion processing, a finding also observed in older women who have consumed a moderate dose of alcohol. Critically, despite the long-recognized need for programmatic interrogation of alcohol’s effect in women, studies with sufficient numbers of women for meaningful analysis represent a small proportion of the literature, constraining interpretation and generalization.

在这篇叙述性评论中，我们借鉴历史和当代文献来探讨饮酒对女性大脑和行为的影响。我们研究了三个领域：1）酒精使用障碍（AUD）对神经生物行为结果的影响，2）其对社会认知/情绪处理的影响，3）酒精对老年女性的急性影响。有令人信服的证据表明，酒精会损害神经心理功能、神经激活和大脑结构。对老年妇女的社会认知和酒精影响的调查代表了新兴的研究领域。初步分析表明，患有 AUD 的女性在情绪处理方面表现出明显的缺陷，这一发现在饮用适量酒精的老年女性中也观察到。至关重要的是，尽管长期以来人们认识到需要有计划地调查酒精对女性的影响，但对足够数量的女性进行有意义的分析的研究只占文献的一小部分，限制了解释和概括。