Asthma and the Use of CNS Depressants: Gender Differences

Abstract
A retrospective 5-year random sample of 196 charts of patients with asthma was obtained from two hospital-based outpatient clinics. The chart reviews showed that age and severity-matched males and females with asthma were prescribed antihistamines in similar proportions; however, 16.8% of the females were prescribed a tranquilizer or sedative compared with 8.5% of the males. The females (8.7%) also were prescribed a combination of these drugs, or two tranquilizers; none of the males were prescribed more than one CMS depressant. Results showed that, in this study, females were prescribed CMS depressants three times as often as males.