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special/news: Jocelyn Kaiser Gender in the Pharmacy: Does It Matter? Science 2005; 308: 1572 [Summary] [Full text] [PDF]

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Gender Matters in Pharmacy: Rates of Adverse Drug Reactions Prove It!

David Gurwitz, Jeantine E. Lunshof, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands   (17 June 2005)

Gender Matters in Pharmacy: Rates of Adverse Drug Reactions Prove It! 17 June 2005
David Gurwitz Department of Human Genetics & Molecular Medicine, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Jeantine E. Lunshof, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Respond to this E-Letter: Re: Gender Matters in Pharmacy: Rates of Adverse Drug Reactions Prove It!	In her news story, “Gender in the Pharmacy: Does It Matter?” (Science, 10 June 2005) Jocelyn Kaiser comments, “Although studies have found many differences in how women and men process drugs, these changes are less worrisome than expected.” We disagree with this reassuring statement. According to a recent UK study (1), women are definitely more likely than men to be admitted to a hospital as a direct consequence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). In this large study, Pirmohamed et al. examined all new admissions of people over 16 years old (total of 18,820 admissions) to two large UK hospitals over a period of six months and found that while women represented 52% of new hospital admissions, they composed 59% of the patient population admitted due to ADRs. This difference was significant at the impressive level of p < 0.0001. We believe that these numbers are a good reason for concern: Certainly, women are at a higher risk to suffer from severe ADRs, and very likely, this reflects differences in how their bodies metabolize and dispose drugs. It is time for the FDA to take a more robust stance on such matters. References: 1. M. Pirmohamed, S. James, S. Meakin, C. Green, A. K. Scott, T. J. Walley, K. Farrar, B. K. Park, A. M. Breckenridge, Adverse drug reactions as cause of admission to hospital: prospective analysis of 18 820 patients, Br. Med. J. 329, 15-19 (2004).