AUTHOR=Seeman Mary V. 

TITLE=The Pharmacodynamics of Antipsychotic Drugs in Women and Men

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.650904

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.650904

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Animal and human experiments have confirmed sex differences in the expression of hepatic enzymes that metabolize antipsychotic drugs and may, in this way, be partly responsible for the clinical sex/gender differences observed in the efficacy and tolerability of this treatment. Aim: The aim of this mini review is to synthesize  the literature on the pharmacodynamics of male/female differential response to antipsychotic drugs.
Appropriate search terms were used to search for preclinical and human trials and analysis of antipsychotic differential drug response and occurrence/severity of adverse effects in women and men.
The search found that sex influences drug response via the amount of a given drug that enters the brain and the number of neurotransmitter receptors to which it can bind. Consequently, sex partly determines the efficacy of a specific drug and its liability to induce unwanted effects. There are other factors that can overshadow or enhance the  dimorphic effect of sex, for instance, the host’s age, hormonal status, diet and life style as well as the molecular structure of the drug and its dose, and the method of its administration. Most of all, the host’s individual genetics affect each step of a drug’s pharmacodynamics.
The greater part of variation in response to antipsychotics can be explained by factors other than sex. Nevertheless, the kinetics and dynamics of drug response do vary, on average, between women and men. This is exemplified by differences in the side effects experienced by the two sexes and by their generally greater severity in women.