Drugs and drugs: very different effects according to sex

It seems quite intuitive to think that drugs They do not affect men as well as women, but many of the studies that are carried out with drugs (before launching them on the market), are not carried out on women, arguing that menstrual cycles can affect study results.

Same drugs but different effects according to sex

Another more concrete example is that of pregnant women. Pregnant women do not participate in trials of this type, for obvious reasons, but this entails some long-term problems, such as ignorance of the effects of these substances during the period of pregnancy. So a woman with a Bipolar disorder, as has been well established, you need a higher dose of the drug Lamictal to control your depression During pregnancy.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdrew 8 out of 10 drugs on the market because they entailed greater health risks for women than for men.

In addition, the probability of suffering side effects is in the women between a 50 and 75 percent higher with respect to men.

Next, we proceed to mention some types of medications and the different effects that they can cause according to sex.

Analgesics

• Opioid pain relievers are more effective in women. It is believed to be a consequence of estrogen fluctuations, since these affect sensitivity to pain.

• The overdose painkillers are more common in men than in women.

• At women they find it more difficult to "unhook" of its consumption.

• In the case of reaching a state of addiction, the women are more likely to relapse, because during some periods of the menstrual cycle blood glucose levels drop, and these in turn are related to the ability to self-control.

Antidepressants

• Women respond better to SSRI antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).

• Men, on the other hand, seem to get more benefits from tricyclic antidepressants.

• The fact that certain antidepressants work better effects on women It is because your blood has less holding capacity, so its hemoproteins absorb less foreign substances.

• The female stomach is less acidic than the male, this causes the SSRIs to be absorbed, apparently more rapidly, thus accentuating its toxicity.

• Another important point is that the higher percentage of fat in women also increases your body's ability to retain antidepressants for longer periods.

Hypnotics

• Man breaks down Zolpidem more easily (a type of hypnotic) and other sleep inducers.

• The woman, on the contrary, it retains more of these drugs in the liver, which makes it possible to affect you to a greater extent throughout the day.

Anxiolytics

• The fact that the woman have a less acidic stomach than men can contribute to them noticing the effects of anxiolytics more strongly, increasing the levels of toxicity of the doses.

• Like the women filter drugs more slowly, should allow more time between doses, especially regarding the consumption of benzodiazepines (one of the most common anxiolytics).

• As with antidepressants, fat facilitates the retention of anxiolytics in the body for a longer time, increasing the risk of suffering side effects and toxicity in lower doses.

Antipsychotics

• The information available on the effects of antipsychotics according to sex has been based mainly on first generation ones, such as haloperidol (a type of antipsychotic widely used in the late 20th century). These have been shown to be more effective in women than in men. Men need higher doses to get the same results.

Anticonvulsants

• The hepatic enzyme CYP3A4 [1], which is especially active in the women, makes these drugs less effective than men.

Conclution

Despite the lack of studies in this regard, (in fact, these results are among the few that exist), this is a marginalized yet highly important field of studySince, taking into account gender differences, drugs could be better adapted to each gender, avoiding unnecessary risks. Thus, The FDA announced that it will intensify its efforts to account for these types of differences in future clinical trials..

Author's Notes:

[1] The CYP3A4 enzyme is responsible for metabolizing xenobiotic compounds in the body, or in other words, it is is responsible for processing compounds that do not appear in the human body naturally, such as most of drugs.