Gender Differences in Adverse Events of Ketamine Drugs: A Real-World Study Based on FAERS

Abstract

Objective. To identify gender differences in the adverse events (AEs) of ketamine, reduce the AEs among patients, and contribute to the advancement of personalized medicine. Methods. A normalized dataset from 2004 Q1 to the 2022 Q4 in the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) was analysed. The reporting odds ratio (ROR), proportional reporting ratio (PRR), and P value were used to detect the risk signals from the data in the FAERS database and quantify the presence and extent of gender differences in ketamine AEs. Results. Totally, 5,477 ketamine (female/male (2507/1795)) AE reports were analysed, and sedation (ROR 1.30 (1.07, 1.58)), suicidal ideation (ROR 1.30 (1.03, 1.64)), nausea (ROR 1.37 (1.05, 1.78)), depression (ROR 1.22 (1.13, 1.61)), dizziness (ROR 2.25 (1.78, 2.90)), anxiety (ROR 1.48 (1.09, 1.99)), and other adverse events were found to be significantly more frequent in male patients than in female patients. Conclusion. Using FAERS, we identified gender as factors associated with ketamine-related AEs. With the limitations inherent to this open data source, our data need prospective validation but elucidate potential factors for a personalized side effect profiling.