Asthma and the use of CNS depressants: gender differences.

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 CNS depressant. Results showed that, in this study, females were prescribed CNS depressants three times as often as males.