[Medical prescription and consumption of psychotropic drugs: questions on the differences between men and women].

In health sociology and social epidemiology the gender-related differences in psychotropic drug consumption and prescription have not been throughly investigated. The objective of this review of literature is to analyze women's attitudes and behaviour in psychotropic drug consumption, the cultural influence of the patient's role in the doctor-female patient relation. The family, the society and the cultural aspects related to the role of the patient appear to be factors that strengthen the females' behaviour concerning psychotropic drugs. Results reflect that women consume more psychotropic drugs than men do; when they consult, they obtain them more frequently than men do; and doctors prescribe psychotropic drugs more often to women than to men. However many questions persist about the physicians' role: are the differences in prescriber's attitudes and practices related to their gender or to their patients' gender? Do women doctors prescribe more psychotropic drugs than male doctors? Do the former prescribe more to women than to men? If that is the case, what are the social and cultural reasons that account for this difference? Does a specific socialisation of the two genders account majoritarily for this difference?