New research suggests that substance abuse has long-term effects on brain volume in women.

Researchers found that stimulant drugs, such as amphetamine or cocaine, could result in vast changes in the brain structures involved in reward, learning and executive control in women "even after prolonged period of abstinence from drug use," The Business Standard reported.

"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," Jody Tanabe, senior author of the study, said in a statement. "These brain areas are important for decision making, emotion, reward processing and habit formation."

For the study, researchers analyzed structural brain magnetic resonance imaging in 127 men and women, including 59 people who were previously dependent on cocaine, amphetamines, and/or methamphetamines for an average of 16 years, and 68 healthy people were similar in age and gender.

The MRI results showed that after a little over a year of abstinence, "women who were previously dependent on stimulants had significantly less gray matter volume in frontal, limbic and temporal regions of the brain," Health Canal reported.

"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.

Researchers said the results may provide a clue to the biological processes underlying the clinical course of stimulant abuse in men and women.

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

The findings are detailed in the journal Radiology.