About this Research Topic

Background

Mental health conditions and substance use disorders in women pose significant challenges to global health. Women are disproportionately affected by mental health conditions (MHCs), including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, which often co-occur with substance use disorders (SUDs), exacerbating their impact on morbidity and mortality rates. Despite growing recognition of these issues, there remains a need for comprehensive research on the underlying mechanisms and development of targeted interventions to address them. Studies examining these issues have historically centered on men, fail to recognize the biological differences between the sexes and routinely excluded women who were pregnant and/or breastfeeding. Understanding the complex interplay between biological, social, psychological, and environmental factors is essential for informing evidence-based approaches to women's MHCs and/or SUDs.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions from experts who study the underlying mechanisms, aetiology, negative consequences, and interventions to address the morbidity and mortality associated with MHCs and/or SUDs in women. By leveraging recent advances in big data analytics, informatics, and machine learning, and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and clinicians, we seek to deepen our understanding of these complex issues and develop effective strategies for prevention and intervention. These diverse perspectives paired with cutting-edge methodologies offer new opportunities to extract meaningful insights from vast datasets, discovering new risk patterns, and allow for personalized interventions to individual needs, ultimately improving outcomes for women globally.

Contributors to this Research Topic are welcome to explore various aspects of women's MHCs and/or SUDs, with a focus on understanding the underlying mechanisms, identifying risk factors, and evaluating interventions to improve outcomes. We welcome perspectives from researchers and clinicians in psychology, psychiatry, internal and emergency medicine, and public health disciplines, as well as others. Specific themes of interest include but are not limited to:

• Biological and Social Determinants: Explore the biological (e.g. hormonal influences, genetic vulnerabilities) and social (e.g. housing insecurity, immigration, socioeconomic disadvantage) factors contributing to the development and progression of MHC and/or SUDs in women.

• Health Outcomes: Investigate the impact of MHCs and/or SUDs on women's health outcomes, including physical health problems, risky behaviors, and mortality. Studies exploring the link between these conditions and suicide, overdose, infectious and chronic diseases are of particular interest.

• Effective Interventions: Present evidence-based interventions for preventing and treating co-occurring MHCs and/or SUDs in women. We welcome research on digital therapeutics, individual and group-based interventions, pharmacological approaches, as well as innovative models of care that address women's specific needs.

• Disparities in Access to Care: Examine healthcare utilization patterns, barriers to treatment, and culturally sensitive interventions to address disparities in access to care for MHCs and/or SUDs, particularly among women of marginalized and/or racially and ethnically diverse populations or residing in low-middle-income countries (LMICs).

• Harnessing Big Data and Advanced Analytics: We are particularly interested in research that leverages large datasets (e.g., electronic health records and social media data) and cutting-edge analytical techniques (e.g. machine learning and NLP) to:
o Identify risk factors for MHCs and/or SUDs in women.
o Predict health outcomes associated with these co-occurring conditions.
o Personalize interventions for women struggling with MHCs and/or SUDs.

This Research Topic accepts the following article types:
Original Research, Systematic Review, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Policy and Practice Review, Perspective, Clinical Trial, Case Report, Policy Brief, Brief Research Report, General Commentary, Opinion, and Technology and Code.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Substance use, mortality, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, outcomes

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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