In emergency departments, female patients are less likely to receive pain medication, a bias that puts them at higher risk for negative outcomes, a new study has found. Female patients are less likely to be prescribed pain medication compared to male patients under similar conditions in emergency departments, a new study has found. Researchers from the US and Israel analysed over 21,000 patient records in the two countries.
They noted that women are prescribed fewer pain relief medications for both opioids and non-opioids than male patients. Their findings were published in the journal (PNAS). This discrepancy spans across medical professionals, with both male and female physicians prescribing fewer pain-relief medications to female patients.
“We think the consequences are dire. Pain management is one of the most important medical interventions,” Dr Tom Gordon-Hecker, a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and one of the study’s authors, told Euronews Health. “Poor pain management predicts mental problems, development of chronic pain and return visits to the ED.
Our results suggest that women are at higher risk for these negative outcomes, due to inadequate pain treatment,” he added. They also found that nurses are 10 per cent less likely to record female patients' pain scores, and women spend an additional 30 minutes in the emergency department compared to their male counterparts. This difference in treatment could hinder the healthcare systems, according to.