Ethnic groups have different drug reactions: BMJ

The British Medical Journal has revealed new research which shows that different ethnic groups are more susceptible to adverse drug side-effects than others.

Researchers analysed 24 studies that included data on adverse reactions for cardiovascular drugs for more than two ethnic groups. They discovered that angio-oedema is three times more likely to occur in black users of hypertension drugs than non-black users. It added that the risk of cough is three times higher for east Asian patients than white patients.

Also, black patients are 1.5 times more likely to develop bleeding than non-black patients when using anti-coagulants.

The report’s authors, Sarah E McDowell, Jamie J Coleman and R E Ferner, concluded: “Our results illustrate that, for a small but well defined set of cardiovascular drugs, and a small number of ethnic groups, there is evidence that susceptibility to adverse reactions differs between ethnic groups.”

However, they add: “For a much larger group of drugs, the data does not exist to confirm or refute the existence of ethnic differences in susceptibility to ADRs.”

According to the UK’s Blood Pressure Association, doctors should take into account a patient’s ethnic origin when prescribing blood pressure drugs because of ethnicity-dependent differences in side effects.

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