Gender and Depression

Abstract

Hagnell et al. (25) indicated an increased incidence of depression in five succeeding five-year periods from 1947 to 1972. They followed the total population of approximately 2500 men and women who lived in Lundby, Sweden, over the 25 years. They interviewed them in 1947, 1957, and 1972, and each time collectd collateral data from other informants, hospital records, social insurance offices, etc. Over this time they found that 111 of 1312 men and 210 of 1238 women suffered from depression for the first time in their lives. Fifty-two of the men and 92 of the women received psychiatric care. Thus, almost twice as many women as men developed a depressive disorder and each sex had a similar percent who sought treatment. When the authors looked at trends over time by sex, they found that the probability of suffering from a mild to moderate depression (mild depression had led to reduced activity of at least 50%) increased during the 25-year period for both sexes. Severe depression decreased in both, but in men more than women. The most striking finding was that there was an increased probability of depression among young adult men aged 20 to 39. The authors urged further study of young adult men. Since they were studying first episodes of depression, these data did not include bipolar illness. They also excluded milder episodes of depression and did not distinguish between a depression occurring in the course of another illness such as alcoholism. It is possible that some of their increase in depression in young men occurs in those men who also have a diagnosis of alcoholism, as they have already shown that there is also an increased incidence of alcoholism in this population (32).