Gender Differences in Depression

Depression is a problem worldwide. According to data from the WHO, the World Health Organization, upwards of 350 million people suffer from depression. According to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every ten adults in the U.S. is depressed. That’s not good. Conventional wisdom has said that females are diagnosed at least twice as often as are males. While that may be true, receiving a diagnosis of depression can be very different from whether or not a state of depression exists in a given brain. First, males typically access healthcare less often than females. And second, according to Lisa A. Martin, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, “When men are depressed they may experience symptoms that are different than what is included in current diagnostic criteria.” 

Part 2 tomorrow.