[Pharmacological gender-specific medicine].
In recent years, the concept of Gender-specific Medicine has become more widespread in Japan. We need to understand gender differences in the use patterns of prescription drugs for proper use of medicines. We therefore investigated gender differences in the use of prescription drugs using the data of 9 hospitals in Japan. The data on prescription drugs were extracted from the drug ordering system for a month from March 1 to 31, 2003. We analyzed the data according to sex and age. As a result, we found that the prescription frequency of central nervous system drugs and Kampo medications for females was higher than that for males. There was also the same trend for hormone medicines and vitamins. On the other hand, the prescription frequency of cardiovascular drugs for males was higher than that for females. Moreover, there was the same trend for unclassified metabolic drugs such as arthrifuge. As a result of detailed analysis by age, a correlation between age-specificity of prescription drugs and gender difference of diseases was suggested. Such information has not been investigated in Japan. Since these results are thought to be useful, we will perform a detailed examination and accumulate evidence for their future exploitation in drug therapy.
Ueno
Koichi
K
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba 260-8675.
Negishi
Etsuko
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors