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Using stimulant drugs like cocaine and amphetamines reduces brain size in women, according to a new study.

New research reveals that women who've used stimulant drugs showed significant and long term changes in brain structures involving learning and executive control.

"We found that after an average of 13.5 months of abstinence, women who were previously dependent on stimulants had significantly less gray matter volume in several brain areas compared to healthy women," senior author Dr. Jody Tanabe, M.D., professor of radiology, vice chair of Research, and Neuroradiology Section Chief at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, said in a news release. "These brain areas are important for decision making, emotion, reward processing and habit formation."

Researchers noted that the same association was not observed in men.

The latest study involved 127 men and women, including 59 people who were previously dependent on cocaine, amphetamines, and/or methamphetamine for an average of 15.7 years, and 68 healthy people.

Study results revealed that women who had been dependent on stimulant drugs had significantly less gray matter volume in their frontal, limbic and temporal regions of the brain.

"While the women previously dependent on stimulants demonstrated widespread brain differences when compared to their healthy control counterparts, the men demonstrated no significant brain differences," Tanabe said. "Compared to men, women tend to begin cocaine or amphetamine use at an earlier age, show accelerated escalation of drug use, report more difficulty quitting and, upon seeking treatment, report using larger quantities of these drugs."

"Lower gray matter volumes in women who had been stimulant dependent were associated with more impulsivity, greater behavioral approach to reward, and also more severe drug use," Tanabe explained. "In contrast, all men and healthy women did not show such correlations."

"We hope that our findings will lead to further investigation into gender differences in substance dependence and, thus, more effective treatments," she concluded.

The findings were published online in the journal Radiology.