The participants all entered a 12-week outpatient placebo-controlled pharmacologic trial for the treatment of cocaine dependence. Results revealed that the women had earned less in the previous year and were more likely to be unemployed than the men. Women began using cocaine at a later age than men, but they attained regular cocaine use at the same age as men and had fewer years of total cocaine use at the time of presentation for treatment. Women were more likely than men to initiate cocaine use with crack cocaine and reported a shorter duration of abstinent periods since they began to use cocaine. Table and 7 references (Author abstract modified)