Depression affects males and females differently

According to a recent study, researchers found that depression has different effects on the brain activity of male and female patients in certain brain regions. The results suggest that adolescent girls and boys may experience depression differently and that sex-specific treatments might be beneficial for adolescents.

When researchers exposed the depressed adolescents to happy or sad words and imaged their brains, they found that depression has different effects on the brain activity of male and female patients in certain brain regions.

Men and women appear to suffer from depression differently, and this is particularly striking in adolescents. By 15 years of age, girls are twice as likely to suffer from depression as boys. There are various possible reasons for this, including body image issues, hormonal fluctuations and genetic factors, where girls are more at risk of inheriting depression. However, differences between the sexes don’t just involve the risk of experiencing depression, but also how the disorder manifests and its consequences.

“Men are more liable to suffer from persistent depression, whereas in women depression tends to be more episodic. Compared with women, depressed men are also more likely to suffer serious consequences from their depression, such as substance abuse and suicide,” said Jie-Yu Chuang, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, and an author on the study.