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Sex and Gender Aspects in Anesthetics and Pain Medication

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Sex and Gender Differences in Pharmacology

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 214))

Abstract

The influence of sex and gender on anesthesia and analgesic therapy remains poorly understood, nevertheless the numerous physiological and pharmacological differences present between men and women. Although in anesthesiology sex–gender aspects have attracted little attention, it has been reported that women have a greater sensitivity to the non-depolarizing neuroblocking agents, whereas males are more sensitive than females to propofol. It has been suggested that men wake slower than women after general anesthesia and have less postoperative nausea and vomiting. Sexual hormones seem to be of importance in the onset of differences. Nevertheless, in the last years, sex–gender influences on pain and analgesia have become a hot topic and data regarding sex–gender differences in response to pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic pain treatments are still scanty, inconsistent, and non-univocal. In particular, females seem to be more sensitive than males to opioid receptor agonists. Women may experience respiratory depression and other adverse effects more easily if they are given the same doses as males. Evidently, there is an obvious need for more research, which should include psychological and social factors in experimental preclinical and clinical paradigms in view of their importance on pain mechanism, in order to individualize analgesia to optimize pain relief.

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Abbreviations

SGD:

Sex–gender differences

ADE:

Drug adverse effects

BIS:

Bispectral index scores

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Acknowledgments

Support for this paper has been provided by “La Medicina di Genere come Obiettivo Strategico per la Sanità Pubblica: l’Appropriatezza della Cura per la Tutela della Salute della Donna from Ricerca Finalizzata Ministero della Salute” 2007 and by a grant of SAR-Legge Regionale 7 agosto 2007, n. 7: “Promozione della ricerca scientifica e dell’innovazione tecnologica in Sardegna”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Via Muroni 23, Sassari, Italy

    Ilaria Campesi, Marco Fois & Flavia Franconi

  2. National Laboratory of Sex-Gender Medicine of the National Institute of Biostructures and Biosystems, Osilo, Italy

    Ilaria Campesi, Marco Fois & Flavia Franconi

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  1. Ilaria Campesi
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  2. Marco Fois
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  3. Flavia Franconi
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Correspondence to Flavia Franconi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Gender in Medicine (GiM), Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR), Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Hessische Str. 3-4, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Vera Regitz-Zagrosek

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Campesi, I., Fois, M., Franconi, F. (2013). Sex and Gender Aspects in Anesthetics and Pain Medication. In: Regitz-Zagrosek, V. (eds) Sex and Gender Differences in Pharmacology. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 214. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30726-3_13

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