DEPRESSION IN WOMEN

Depression is just a 'women's thing'



Depression is just a 'women's thing'

Introduction

Depression is defined as the point or points of those lives when they are mentally unstable and emotional state characterized by sadness, despair and loss that may occur during adolescence. Depression leads to changes in behaviour, thinking, and especially the changes in their daily lives.

In the world, depression is more prevalent among women than among men. Female male ratio varies from 2:1 to 3:1 in most industrialized countries (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1999). "Women are 2-3 times more likely than men to suffer from depression" (Encarta Encyclopedia, 2001). "Why do women feel blue more often than men?"

Three explanations of sex differences in depression for potential hypotheses are as follows:

(1) Women are more likely to seek help and therefore more likely to be classified as having depression.

(2) Biological differences may exist between men and women that predispose women to become more depressed than men.

(3) Psychological factors, various education environments, different social roles, and less favourable economic and reaching possibilities, for example, can lead to more depression among women than among men.

Feeling Blue

From my research and knowledge in this subject, I would say that biological differences are the main cause frequent cause of depression in women. The first potential hypothesis may be true, but about 1 / 3 of women suffering from depression do not get help. Often they do not recognize the symptoms of depression. For example, they may experience headaches, fatigue and sleep problems, but do not realize that these symptoms of depression. While there may be psychological differences between men and women, I feel that women are more sensitive - in terms of physiology.

Firstly, because of differences between X and Y chromosome, male and female brains are exposed to various hormonal around in utero. These hormonal differences can affect brain development so that men and women have different vulnerabilities and different physiological responses to environmental stressors - later in life.

Secondly, the fact that after puberty, men and women have different levels of circulating sex steroids could somehow make women at higher risk of depression. Studies show that girls are more susceptible to depression than boys after puberty when they begin menstruating and experiencing hormonal fluxes. Estrogens can pave the way for depression indirectly primer stress reaction of the organism. Evidence is emerging that estrogens may not only increase in cortisol (a hormone that increases the activity of metabolic and immune system, among others) secretion, but also reduces the ability of cortisol to close its own secretion. The result could be a response to stress, which is not only more pronounced, and longer in women than in men (Nolan-Hoeksema 1990).

It is unclear whether depression is a cause or a consequence of elevated levels of cortisol, but these two clearly are linked. Over the past few decades, several studies have shown that cortisol levels are elevated in about half of severely depressed people, both men and women. Thus, the idea is this: if estrogens increases levels of cortisol after the stress ...