Quand la femme alcoolique dit: j'ai mal à ma famille...

Most of the existing studies relating to alcoholism do not establish any gender difference. Female alcoholism is simply reduced to male alcoholism. Even if more than one of four persons admitted for alcohol-related reasons are women, the daily clinical practice incites us to state that etiology, symptoms and caring of female alcoholism is far to be identical to male alcoholism. The aim of this article is to outline the family's influence (especially nuclear family) on the problematic of female alcoholism. Conclusions: family appears to have more influence on health in alcoholic women than in alcoholic men; such a family's influence does not find its grounds in the family of origin (the past) but rather in the actual nuclear family (the present).